New Pack Order
by Blackskins
Summary: Retired trainer turned Pack Leader, James has his whole life flipped around through a sudden turn of events and must now deal with the challenge of caring for hundreds more pokemon as their leader and champion. Politics and government (kinda), Lemons in later chapters, light swearing, mature content, you have been warned. HumanxPokemon and PokemonxPokemon plus variations.
1. Chapter 1: The Visit

**First story, hope you like it.**

**Fair warning all guest reviews will be immediately deleted no matter what they say before I even read them so is you have something you really want me to read, get an account. One and only warning for the story.**

**More me specific rules in my Bio, please read before writing anything to me else you may be annoyed, disappointed or angry with me real fast.**

**I do not own Pokemon.**

* * *

_Chapter 1: The Visit_

She was ready.

Her prey was in position. She had been waiting all day for this very moment. It took much longer than last week but here it was, and she wasn't going to miss it.

She was hiding in the forest along Route 5. She had a bush to cover her entire quadricipital body head to toe from view as she tucked her tails in as well. She stares as her prey calmly walks by while she goes unnoticed. He crossed her line of vision, it was time.

She slowly got into a ready stance so she wouldn't make any unnecessary noise to startle him. She brought her front left and rear right legs slightly back while lowering her front and remembering to keep her tails down so she can avoid being seen. Her target gets just far enough away so he won't hear her just out of the bush. She slowly licks her lips, ready to taste him, and bursts out. She sprints. One couldn't tell she was even running since she was just so graceful and so fast that her feet barely even touched the ground. Her footsteps virtually making no sound. She gets closer and closer, still going unnoticed as she nears within a few meters of him. She's in range. She pounces on him. Her elegant paws hit him in the back and knocks him to the ground, rolling. While he's vulnerable she takes her finishing strike.

And litters his face with licks and affectionate kisses.

"H-Hey stop it, HAHA, that tickles!" the human laughs out.

This human was James Guilbeaux, her all-time favorite human in the world, being in general for that matter. He has always been so sweet to her for the year and a half that they knew each other and he quickly became a part of her world, and hopefully soon to be her entire world. He was 19 years of age, a solid 5'9", with nice tanned skin, and short black hair with a small stubble beard. He had a sexy build to him in her opinion, bulky, fit enough to show a little six pack but not enough to make it as clear as day. It shows the effects of all their runs and exercise. He always wears the same attire for some reason, a brown tank top, "wife beater" he calls it, and dark blue jeans. He also had this necklace on that was a weird mix of beauty and roughneck but it worked out somehow. It was a pearl necklace, each individual pearl is connected to the next by some very thin very strong string, and at the very front was a large canine tooth from a very strong Feraligatr. She has tried many times to get him to talk about it but he just continues to change the subject, one day maybe.

Currently, James is a retired trainer. Going through three different leagues, with three different team of six, and earning numerous awards. Notably he placed Top 4 in the Sinnoh league conference, and won the Unova and Kalos leagues but still have yet to use his voucher to challenge the elite four of those regions. He currently has only 6 Pokémon, a Lucario, a Goodra, a Zoroark, a Stoutland, a Gallade, and an Infernape as his starter, each as strong as can be, knowing every move they can natural know with the exception of TMs and tutor moves because they are expensive and some not needed, but every team member was allowed one tutor move and knows at least 5 TMs and can get more through finding items around to sell. Once they build up enough in their name James will go with them and buy which ever TM they want. A method they agreed on to make them work for what they want. The most amount any of them have learned was obviously Stoutland being the sniffer that he is. He'll literally find something almost every week, elemental stones, weird berries, mega stones, sometimes actually cash or actually unused or reusable TMs. He's racked up enough to get a whooping 15 TMs. This is not counting the HMs.

Insane to think about really.

"Hey Nala, how have ya been? Sorry I'm late, I wasn't expecting you 'til tomorrow." He said as he stroked her head while she continued to lay on him.

"I couldn't wait that long. I missed you too much," she replies mewling from the affectionate rubbing.

"You could have just waited on me at the house."

"Yeah… but I wanted to surprise you. Plus I was a little bit mad that you were late, though that was until I realized that our day was tomorrow."

"Well come on, since you're here let's walk back together, alright?"

She happily nods, and gives one last long lick to James' face.

This creature, Nala, is a 24-year-old Ninetails, a gorgeous golden lupine fox, a slightly darker tint, orangish almost, with red eyes, whitish yellow neck fur, a large half mohawk half ponytail style hairdo on the top of her head between her ears, and, like her species name entitles, nine tails attached to her rear, with each tail tip a sharp red instead of orange, indicating her level of power and potential. A common misconception about Ninetails is that touching a tail of a Ninetails is forbidden by the species and a curse will be put on the accused. However, this is not entirely true. Yes, a curse may come, however young Ninetails have no control over this. Ninetails only have one real tail, so this may occur when someone touches the wrong tail. Upon evolution, a Ninetails loses feeling in all but one tail, random depending on the individual. A Ninetails, during its early fresh-off-evolution phase, can only control the one tail while the others follow it in unison. The difference can be found when a Ninetails moves its real tail forward or back, not side to side, the other won't follow it, allowing for the Ninetails to show the person the correct tail to touch. As they get older, or train to control it, they, through their mystical illusionary abilities, gain better control over there other fake tails to the point where they can control them just as well as their regular tail. They are also able control the curse, eradicating it completely or heightening the severity of it. This deadly combination has been a problem among people because some untrained or wild Ninetails might draw unsuspecting trainers in, get them to touch the wrong tail, and eventually making them suffer through a very slow painful death much after the fact due to an "unknown cause." Just a few of the many potential powers of these illusionists. James could recall his mom's Ninetails, Fifi, back in Sinnoh. When Fifi was young, his mom marked her real tail with a red dot on the tip of her real tail, only small and distinct enough so that you have to know what to look for to find it. Other trainers did this too and the mark was different for every trainer, whether it was a bracelet, or maybe even a single hair cut or out of place.

Nala is unique however. Even though she is very young for her species and wild, Ninetails can live to be 300 years old if healthy and powerful, she has already mastered her tail curse abilities, being able to dissipate it on command and even give a curse to someone even if they touch her actual tail. Maybe there was a little motive in there from a certain human she had her heart set on. But it still stands to be an amazing feat for a young wild Ninetails. Even more rare that she did it in the wild and not with the help of a trainer.

Just another bonus quality of being great friends with a wild Ninetails.

"I'm actually really glad you showed today and not tomorrow" James spoke suddenly.

"Why is that?" Nala replies.

"Because this is our friendship anniversary. 2 years ago today is when we first met."

"*Gasp* Really?!" Nala's eyes widen as she excitedly wags all 9 of her tails.

"Yeah, wouldn't feel as special celebrating on a day that's not the day of, right?"

"OMG, OMG, OMG, I'm so glad you remembered," Nala says running and jumping around James as he continues to walk to the house, "cause well, you know how bad I am at your human time telling. Can't tell difference between your hour and your week."

"I've told you that fine about a million times now. You don't have to know everything about humans or understand everything. Heck, I don't understand humans have the time." James scratches the back of his head. "Pokémon are so much simpler than us humans."

"Are we actually going through this again. You have no idea how complicated Pokémon are. Plus, I only want to know so much about humans to be closer to you, you know that."

"Yeah, I guess I do. But enough on this. Let's at least get back to the house so we can celebrate. Race ya!" As he started sprinting the rest of the way to his house.

"No way you're gonna beat me!" Nala yells ahead to James before speeding up to catch up to him.

Even though they can't see each other much, they are virtually inseparable when they are together. Their first meeting was same as all the other great friendships, Ninetails on duty, sees human in distress from a Pokémon of a neighboring territory, fights them off but barely survives, human nurses her back to health, the usual, nothing special… not really….

* * *

They approach the house. A much larger log cabin than should be possible for only a human and a team of 6 Pokémon should be able to build in just under 2 months is displayed before them. It's pretty much a standard log cabin, each thick, interchanging-direction, tree log under another one with each having a divot where the logs connect at the ends, all the way to the top where they would narrow in to make a triangular roof. The only exception being that it's about 2/3 of the size of Lumiose tower and a half a block long, a mansion that could fit a mansion or two inside of it. However inside is very basic compared to everything else. There are 3 floors but everything is very standard and only has the essentials. The bottom floor is composed of a larger living room, dining room, kitchen, library, trophy room, a half bathroom, and a garage but it's only used for tools, extra storage or just regular empty space. The second floor introduces the laundry room, a few bedrooms, each with its own full bathroom, an extra half bathroom, a game room, not much in it but mostly used for the space, and a weight room. The title was changed from training room after one too many accidents to the far wall… and the bedroom on the other side… and the bedroom behind that one. The third floor consisted of 3 more bedrooms and the master bathroom, each with their own full bathroom, a linen closet, and a door that leads to area on top of the second-floor roof that is used for sunbathing. All the furniture looks like something you would see in a 60s movie, very generic and unoriginal, and boring. The only rooms that had real effort, and money, put into it are the bedrooms, custom designed by the owners of those rooms, James and his Pokémon, and the weight room, now reinforced with Pokémon proof material, to prevent any more accidents. The stairs, that stand before the front doorway, go all the way to the 3rdfloor, and for easy access, a slide was installed next to the stairs going the opposite way into the wall and stops at each floor with a soft landing at the end of each slide and a barrier on the sides of the slide to prevent sliding into someone walking past. The slide size was based of the largest member of the group who wanted to be able to use the slide. Since the biggest one ended being James, the slide is only big enough to accommodate him and only slightly more so he can still grow a little in muscle and have no problems. This had the added effect of helping him stay fit and in shape, not that he really needed to be worried about it with Nala's antics. Always running around with James, racing, play roughing, or even just all the walking and talking they do.

"Huh… huh… grahh… You got me… again," gasped James. "You're too damn fast."

"Nah, I'm not that fast… you're just slow," mocked Nala.

"So what is that now, 90 in-a-row."

"93 but who's really counting?" She gave a cheeky smirk.

"I'm gonna get you one of these days."

"Yeah, yeah, you say that every time, but I'm still here, undefeated, hehe," she laughs. "Just open the door already, I haven't seen the team in forever."

"Yeah, yeah, you say that every time," James mocks. "Don't you know how to open the door with Psychic?"

"I dooooooo," she admits. "Buuuuuut I feel like I'm trespassing when I do that."

"You do it to everyone else when we're in town."

"Well yeah, but those are just for fun, and I care about you, you and the gang are only ones I really care about."

"You flatter me so I won't keep you waiting any longer." James pulls out his key, unlocks the door, and pushes it open.

"GIVE ME BACK MY VIBRATOR!" came a feminine voice, being the first thing James and Nala heard, their eyes going wide at the first sentence they heard, accompanied by some Pokémon speeding towards the stairs being the first thing they saw. The first one, the one being chased, was the dark lupine Zoroark, holding a pink device that was a little longer than her fist up in the air as she sped past. The one chasing after her was the aura fighter Lucario, rage evident on her face as she chased the Zoroark to the stairs.

"YOU SAID I COULD BORROW IT!" shouted the Zoroark, indicating that the first voice came from the Lucario.

"I SAID WHEN I FINISHED AND I WASN'T FINISHED YET!" the Lucario projected back, confirming that it was her voice James and Nala heard first, as they raced up the stairs.

"THAT WAS AN HOUR AGO AND I HAVE NEEDS TOO!"

"JUST USE YOUR HAND OR GET YOUR OWN!" as they jumped in the wall slide.

"IT'S NOT THE SAME AND YOU KNOW THAT, PLUS THIS ONE IS SO REALISTIC AND ALMOST THE SAME SIZE AS J-" she froze as she exited the slide to see James and Nala at the doorway with cartoonist blank stares and embarrassed expressions on their faces. "o-oh, h-hi Jam- OOF" she grunted as the Lucario that followed her down the slide collided into her making the vibrator in the Zoroark's hand to rocket forward and roll in front of James and come to a stop at his feet, where both James and Nala could see and smell the leftover arousal residue leftover probably from the Lucario.

James stared at it longer than he wanted to, a heavy blush appeared on his face with a slight throb going on in his pants. It's not the first time he has seen it, nor is he a stranger to sex, having had a few flings back in his younger trainer days in Sinnoh and Unova, but not exactly comfortable with having to know about his Pokémon's needs and urges. He bought a couple toys for the girls after a little episode with them going into heat and bothering him about it every few minutes and not wanting to ask the team or get some other wild Pokémon to help them. Needless to say those were some bounding experiences that he will never forget. He made the compromise that as long as he didn't have to know and they kept it to themselves, he would buy them all the different types of sex toys so they could satisfy themselves, but he was only making one trip, and never going back. It wasn't that he didn't like what they did, he would just rather have a better chance for having kids later on when he decides to go find the one for him. He knows that it's very possible for humans and Pokémon to healthy children, the problem is they will always come out as the mother, which in his case will be the species of Pokémon, and the chance of the Pokémon getting pregnant is significantly lower than if it was human on human, even during heat season for the most potent of humanoid-shaped Pokémon like Lopunny and Gardevoir. So for these reasons, he would much rather not get used to having sex with his Pokémon partners lest he get too attached to it or them. He still loves them dearly and would die for them and worse case scenario he might "bond" with them again, he just doesn't want to get use to it or get attached like that. At least he doesn't think so.

"*sigh* …really?" exclaimed James.

"SHE STARTED IT!" they both shouted. James recoiled at their conjoined response.

"Shade first" catching the Zoroark's attention "what happened?"

"Well, Master," she said seductively. "I felt like getting myself off while you were gone since I had been thinking about you ALLLL day, and you know thoughts of you get me SUPER horny, and my toys were getting a little stale and Lily here had one that was just about your size so I waited until I thought she was done to borrow it and she got all mad pissy about it even though I had asked her prior to me using it, which she agreed to, and started chasing me."

"Lily what is missing from her story" deferring to the Lucario, knowing that Shade always leaves something out of the story for her benefit.

"It's actually pretty accurate even coming from her, except for the part where my condition for letting her borrow was after I finished and I wasn't finished. She snatched it out of my pussy as I was using it and took off," Lily explained.

"That was an hour ago!"

"You could have waited!"

James lets out a heavy sigh as Nala just chuckles in the background. "Okay… first and foremost, stop calling me master. I know you probably get off to it but you know I don't like that. Second, Shade, you have your own toys, use them. Why do you have to use Lily's?"

"Because they're so much better than mine."

"You went with me to choose the toys you wanted."

"Well Lily made better choices."

James grabs his nose, "My god, and Lily if you told her she could use them, why did you take so long? I, unfortunately, know that it doesn't take you that long to climax."

"Well we both know that you can make me climax really fast, but me doing it myself? It's just not the same," Lily matched Shade's seductiveness with some mock disappointment.

"Geez Louise, look, can you, just this once, clean it off and let her have it for a bit so we can let this go. I really don't want to deal with this now. We can go out for ice cream tomorrow in the city if you guys can get along today."

"Well when you put it like that. I can't pass up ice cream."

"Me neither," Shade agreed.

"Did someone say ice cream?" a deep scratchy voice came from the top floor, sounding overly dramatic that takes away the excitement in his voice. He could be seen leaning on to the railing next to the stairs, but only briefly, as he crouched down and propelled himself up and over the hand rail down and over the two flights of stairs, which included a very acrobatic double backflip with a half spin turn so when he stuck the landing about a foot in front of the small group while crouching on his right knee, stops moving for a full second for the effect of his entrance to really hit them, before quickly standing up, pivoting on his left foot towards the group and move his right blade arm fast enough so you could hear it slice the wind, bringing it down to his side as his left arm comes up to his chest at the same speed, finishing his overly dramatic entrance.

"Show-off," James scoffs and rolls his eyes at the Gallade's performance.

"Guess that means I did good haha!" laughs the Gallade.

"You know Arthur as mature as you are supposed to be you sure seem to never do anything like a normal person," Lily comments.

"Well you know me, I'm responsible but boring isn't fun. So I heard something about ice cream."

"Tomorrow, Arthur," James clarified, "and only if these two numbskulls," pointing at Lily and Shade, "can get along until then."

"Well you both heard the man," the Gallade, now named Arthur, piped up, "either love each other or separate because I want ice cream and I am not letting you two ruin that m- I-I mean the team…. And our beautiful guest. Nice to see you as always Nala," correcting himself and just now noticing Nala.

"You're such a gentleman Arthur, tell me again why you are still single?" Nala quipped.

"Oh you know, there just hasn't been anyone that has caught my interest yet but when there is at least a candidate I will let you know."

"You better!"

"I promise."

"Alright" James said as he broke up the conversation, "it's great that she is here but first things first, THIS" moving his hand in a wide circle in front of him to include the area the girls were taking up, "needs to be cleaned. Arthur," getting the Gallade's full undivided attention, "can you get the other's downstairs for me to start doing their chores and tell Grace to meet me in the kitchen to start making some food?"

"Will do!"

"and please just use the stairs?"

"(sigh) finnnneeeee, spoiled sport"

"Well that type of attitude doesn't give Pokémon the privilege of going to get ice cream."

"I mean yay! Stairs! I love that." Arthur gave a fake happy voice and smile with a thumbs up.

"That's better, and would you like to help with dinner Nala?"

"Unfortunately I have to get back to my pack since it's getting late but I will see you all later I promise, and we will celebrate when I have more time." she said sounding disappointed but perking up as she told about the celebration.

"That is okay Nala we'll miss you until then."

"I love you all! Bye guys! And happy anniversary."

And after a round of byes, she was off.

"Alright guys get to it" as James closes the door behind Nala and goes into the kitchen to prepare some food.

* * *

-some time later at the den

We see Nala walking to her chamber ready to go to sleep. She was stopped by one of the twin advisors for the pack leader, a small and frail but very powerful Espeon by the name of Dawn.

"Nala, you didn't come back with the gathering group you were watching today. Why were you late?"

"Didn't they tell you? I went to go take a small walk and do my own gathering for the pack as well. It was only for a little bit. What's the big deal?" Nala attempted to explain herself.

"Two big deals actually. One being that you can't lie to me and you know that. And two being that Pack Leader Ven watched the group come back and he doesn't believe the situation. My sister and I can't keep him from knowing your secret for much longer Nala. It's only a matter of time."

"He won't find out if you don't tell him Dawn. There won't be a problem he's not smart enough to figure that out on his own."

"On the contrary Nala," came a new voice. How she didn't see her sitting next to Dawn this whole time, she didn't know, but with how mysterious the sisters are they probably could have done that on purpose. A slightly bulkier Umbreon named Dusk, the twin to Dawn, sat before them, and spoke with a more Galarian (British) accent and purposefully using a higher vocabulary when talking, whether it sounded right or not, though she was usually in the presence of those that weren't smart enough to correct her so it didn't matter too much if she was wrong or not. "Ven has a much higher intelligence than he would be anticipated to contain, despite his normally retarded species and lack of performing actions on his own. Should he become suspicious enough to perform his own research and hunting for information, he may discover your grand secret. And you do not want to witness what he is willing to do once he figures your scheme out."

Nala's blood ran cold at that statement.

"I….I will be fine. No big deal, I just have to tell myself that he won't know, it's okay," Nala attempts to calm herself down so she will stop worrying and visibly shivering and hold down the urge to pee herself over her fright.

"Keep telling yourself that and remember we do hope for the best for you," Dawn stated, "But also remember that due to our position and our circumstances we are staying loyal to Ven. Since he will have us there for whatever your punishment may be, we do hope the best for you, because we don't want to be the ones to do it to you."

"Stay cautious."

Both eeveelutions stood up and walked off to their chambers while Nala slowly slumped to hers, ready to cry herself to sleep.

As if it couldn't get any worse, a figure from the shadows growled with a small angry smirk on his face.

"I knew you were up to something little Ninetails." He remarked. "This will be the last time you betray me."


	2. Chapter 2: The Team

**Some things I feel like need addressing, not in any order of importance.**

**James' design is based off a character I made in Pokken Tournament, only without the headphones and probably a slightly different necklace. And for short black hair, think of the 80s type hairstyle called the Flat-top-fade but make it like half an inch in length and slightly spiky in the very front.**

**The house design I just pulled out of my ass don't ask me for more details, it won't be that important later, or at least that's the plan, if it becomes important I'll make some more specific details and tell you to go look at the changes.**

**I did forget to explain how he can understand the pokemon, he had an ear piece that translates pokespeech or whatever it's called. But it did change into something more unique.**

**That part will be explained later on since now I can make it better than I planned to tell it in the first chapter and less forced.**

**This is M-rated due to there going to be a few lemons, maybe more. I know the summary says they will only be for plot but I might through in some unneeded ones just to see if I can further improve my writing of them. If you are not 18+ please heed the warnings in the beginning of the chapters that have them and be prepared to skip over them. There won't be one for a while, that's the plan at least, so you can continue reading but stay cautious and don't say I didn't warn you.**

**However, I will add that the origin for Shade the Zoroark is dark and has to do with sexual themes so again if you are under the age 18 please use caution. I will put a warning on the section that contains this part so if you want to skip it you can, it does not hurt the understanding of her story and it's a very short section, a paragraph I believe.**

**This chapter focuses more on each character's origin not necessarily their overall character, just makes it easier to understand them when certain things are revealed down the line. It's a lot of information and very little dialogue with most of it not being in quotations. I advise reading it as since at the upload of this I have no writing done for the next chapter, I only have notes up to chapter nine and it's very vague as of this upload.**

**In other words, I have no idea if I'm going to write in a way that allows you to skip this chapter and be fine by interpreting the story from real time. So just read it. I know it may be boring to have only details and no filler dialogue or character development, but it's worth it.**

**Enjoy!**

**I do not own pokemon.**

* * *

_Chapter 2: The Team_

That Night:

James tossed and turned in his bed. Sleeping. One second, he would fling his arms to the side, the next, he would turn his head to the opposite side of the bed with his arms once again followed closely behind. A third second shows him curling up into a ball while the following one contains him shaking, almost vibrating, while starting to breath a lot heavier. His nightmare was increasing in volume as he laid in his bed, sweating, shaking, hyperventilating. The voices he could hear felt loud enough that someone watching him could hear small glimpses of them.

"Stop him!"

"Use Thunder Fang"

"Gator NOOOO!"

"*GASP*" James woke up with a start confused as to where he's at now. Realizing it was just a nightmare he settled back down into bed, still breathing a little heavier than normal but quickly stabilizing. He puts his hand on his chest to calm himself. That's when he felt his necklace. He slowly lifted it up and held it up to his face. He reminisced lots of good memories that came with the owner of that tooth. He placed the tooth on his chest once more and gave it a mental moment of silence

...Abruptly interrupted by a small moan to his left side.

He looked over to see Lily, forgetting that she was even in here, then looked to his right and saw Shade, wondering how he forgot they were there since they always sleep with him. Speaking of waking up he could see the sun just a bit meaning that it was a little after dawn and time to wake up. He slowly got out of bed to not disturb the two sleeping Pokémon and further than he thinks he may have. He looks back at his Pokémon as he got to the door and starts to lean on the door frame thinking back to the history of these two.

* * *

Lily and Shade both were later entries to the team, members 6 and 7 since he had pretty much a full team coming out of Sinnoh with Lily being the last member of that squad and Shade joining them during his trip to Unova.

Lily was actually found by Arthur, then still a Kirlia. During some training in the middle of the night trying to learn a new move but not getting the aim right. After a while they decided on one last attempt and they would pack it up for the night. Arthur finally looked as if he hit the target until the smoke cleared and it was still intact. They went closer to the target.

Only for a blue sphere to be shot out of the woods from the side.

They just barely dodged out of the way where it exploded on a tree. James and Arthur looked at each other and back at the place where the shot came from. They then saw another one, aimed high in the air, followed by a blood-curdling half howl half scream. They ran into the forest where the sound came from knowing something might be scared or in trouble.

They get to a clearing where they see a large hefty man a good foot taller than James at the time with a lion's mane like beard, a large scar over his left eye, across the bridge of his nose, reaching the center of his right cheek. He carried a large staff that was carved to look like a cobra had wrapped around it and sat its head on the top of it. The staff being just about level with his elbow for him to lean on it. He was grinning watching two Houndoom ganging up on a small Riolu, beaten, bruised, looks to have a dislocated shoulder, and slightly bloody in various areas but not enough to die from it, and still fighting for its life.

James knows it'd be hard to step in and help since Arthur doesn't have many good moves to use against dark types, plus the rest of his team are back at the center he was staying in. But he got an idea.

Riolu just got hit from another flamethrower from one of the Houndoom and is down. The burly man told his secure the catch, confirming him to be a poacher. The Houndoom jumped in the air ready to end the fight and bring the prize to the boss, Riolu closed its eyes waiting for the inevitable.

But then, nothing.

She opened her eyes to see that she was in some pick bubble high in the air. She looked down to see the Houndoom disoriented, likely from hitting each other after missing. The man trying to capture it was in heavy disbelief and anger at the situation, ordering the Houndoom to stop playing around and shoot it down, to which both started charging up dark pulses, being a problem since the bubble was likely psychic type. The Riolu first noticed that there was a boy and a Kirlia in the cover of the forest. The Kirlia's eyes were glowing the same as the bubble she was floating in, with her arms out holding the bubble. The Kirlia then moved her right arm in a counterclockwise circular motion, and the Riolu suddenly started glowing faintly green and feeling better. The Riolu watched as the cuts were sowing back together, the bruises were fading, even its dislocated shoulder was fixing itself, and it felt so much more powerful than before. The Houndoom finally shot their Dark Pulses, and Riolu jumped out of the bubble, landing on its two feet with a paw on the ground. The Riolu slowly stood up and turned towards the Houndoom. It opened its eyes to show them shinning fully blue like a misty fire. Power and aura radiated off the youngling.

The Riolu flexed.

Glowed even brighter.

Felt the new power within.

Then screamed another loud, blood-curdling, pissed off, no more games, battle cry.

With the newfound power the Houndoom were slightly scared but knew if they ran they would be punished. So they got into a battle stance not backing down from the power boosted target. The Riolu, seeing they've given up their one and only chance to flee, charged two large balls of energy, which could now be identified as Aura Sphere, in each hand, and blasted them at the two enemy Pokémon at supersonic speed, knocking them into the air, and launching them both into different trees, behind the poacher, putting them down for the count.

The poacher watched his Pokémon get put down in one hit each, and turned back around to cower at the Riolu he spent the last half hour trying to catch. It stalked up to him slowly, staring at him with a piercing gaze that could challenge a demon, or dare I say Batman. The poacher tried to back up but fell backwards on his back. He sat up to see the Riolu still walking towards him, a little bit faster now. He suddenly grins, and whips his cane out to have it transform in the blink of an eye, to reveal a trigger in the cobra's neck and a hole coming out of the bottom of the cane.

Riolu froze. Say goodnight the poacher said.

Before his cane shotgun glowed pink and bent away from the Riolu, so when the man pulled the trigger, the gun made a small explosion, not enough to kill anyone, but definitely enough to bloody up the poacher's hand.

The Riolu was once again upon him. It charged up a big aura sphere in between both hands, before raising the blue ball of life energy over its head, charging it further.

However once again through some out of nowhere interference, to balls of psychic energy appeared, one directed for the Riolu and the other for the poacher. Once they reached their heads, they stayed there for a good few seconds, before removing themselves, revealing both to be asleep, and dissipating the large aura sphere into thin air.

Sometime later the Riolu, revealed to be a girl, woke up in a young boy's lap, weak and tired, next to a Kirlia, with flashing lights coming from two vehicles off to the side, one holding the man she was fighting off. The boy reassured her that she would be ok, the bad man is going away for the rest of his life, and she will have a home with him if she would like. She agreed, accepting the new home, the new team, and her new name.

Lily.

* * *

About 4 months later, now in Unova, now back down to 5 team members with release of a teammate, a story for later, James was helping a friend at the time with a raid on a Team Plasma site. His friend, forgot his real name, codename: Black, asked for his help knowing the skill level of his team and his few run-ins with Team Galactic back in Sinnoh. The goal was to sneak in, figure out what was there, report it, and bust it while saving any Pokémon they can.

With the help of their Pokémon, they were able to tunnel in through to the underground floors undetected. Once inside they found two guards on patrol, just about the same size and build as them lucky enough. They waited on the corner and waited for them to pass them, before they ran behind them, grabbed them by the neck and mouth to keep them from moving and screaming, giving Arthur time to jump out and hit them both with Hypnosis putting them to sleep. Once asleep James and Black changed into the guards' clothes and stuffed the unconscious men in the nearby supply closet. Checking the equipment and gear in the clothes they found flashlights, tasers, and keycards for the elevator, hopefully access to the lower floors.

They were able to blend in enough to make it to the elevator undetected. When they got their they tested out the key cards they got. Black's key card did not have any more clearance than the floor they were on.

So lucky them that James' did.

The elevator started moving as soon as James swiped his key card. It had to be as much as three floors. Once the elevator started slowing down is when they started fearing the worst for what they were about to see. Through the door, they heard a lot of noises, lots of yelling, a lot of Pokémon cries, and a whole lot of whines and moans coming from both Pokémon and humans, male and female.

What they witnessed was worse than anything they could have imagined.

**Sexual Themes Warning**

They stepped into what looked like an underground brothel where they sold sex with Pokémon. There was a line of people at different sections blocked off by a single sheet cover for privacy. Almost everyone was fully naked and stroking or fingering themselves while waiting for their turn. At the top of each section there was the name of each Pokémon and the gender that was held in the room. There were all types, the popular humanoid Pokémon like Gardevoir and Lopunny, some dragons or dragon-like Pokémon like Charizard and Dragonite, some that just sounded sick like Kangaskhan, assuming there was a child with them like always, and a Plusle and Minum, a threesome with two really small Pokémon where an average sized man could break.

Some way of preaching that Pokémon need freedom.

**End Section**

There was an open tent a little ways down so they decided to investigate it before anyone got to it. They got there and closed the curtain behind them. Chained up, muzzled, power dampened and frightened was a female Zoroark. By the looks of it she was also new, probably just thrown in today. She had fear written all over her face. Fear that she would be submitted to their sick desires without so much as a fight. James walked closer to her. The Zoroark closed her eyes, probably preparing for the worst. James hugged and cuddled her, reassuring her that she would be alright he and his partner were gonna get her and everyone else out of here. She closed her eyes tighter and started tearing up. James was able to remove the muzzle and the power dampener collar but couldn't remove the chains. While figuring out what to do, the Zoroark morphed into a small Timburr through her illusion ability, releasing her from the chains, before quickly changing back looking slightly weak, probably due to these guys drugging the Pokémon to be more submissive and less likely to fight back.

Once released she jumped back into James' arms to give him a proper hug and continue to sob in on his shoulder, quietly so no one else would hear.

Black alerted them that they are a lot more people that showed up, breaking out is gonna be tough. Assuming everyone also has some Pokémon on them and if anyone escapes they will signal the others and have a lot more to worry about. James had a plan though. He released Flare, his Infernape, and LeRoy the Stoutland. He told both to use dig and go under each section, knockout the humans, and release the Pokémon but tell the Pokémon to stay in the room until told too. They both nodded and went to work. From their position you could hear the place get quieter and quieter. The ones standing in line were getting weary and impatient wondering why it got so quiet all of a sudden. Then out of nowhere, Black flies through the sheet covering their room and drop kicks the guy waiting outside for his turn with the new Zoroark. James yelled for everyone to attack, releasing the rest of his Pokémon, Black releasing his.

Then all hell broke loose.

Pokémon of all shapes, strengths, and sizes came out of the sections and let all types of attacks fly out, hitting the Plasma members. Flash Cannons and Dragon Rages and Flamethrowers came out in waves while others Quick Attacked and Aqua Jetted and Vine Whipped the ones that were acrobatic or dodging all the beams. Some tried to escape but were met by Flare and LeRoy at the elevator. LeRoy used Quick Attack and hit every member that came to try and escape, Flare hit everyone that was still standing or conscious with various punching moves. Zoroark was amazed at the display of power that came from all of the Pokémon there, especially the ones that came from James, but did not want to get in there, lest she be captured again or get hit in the chaos.

Soon all the destruction died down and everyone settled. A single groan came a guy struggling to move, before he was shut up by a mega punch from the Lopunny. James called for anyone who knew dig to step up. There were a few volunteers big and small. He told LeRoy to dig a tunnel out of the place about a quarter mile away. He nodded, jumped in the air and dug a tunnel straight down and North. James asked a Luxray that volunteered to go in next so that the hole would be widen since he also has the best eyesight. He followed in after LeRoy the hole now three times the size of the one LeRoy started. Every Pokémon that knew dig was then asked to partner up with one or a few that didn't know dig and go with them in the tunnel. Few by few all the Pokémon were loaded into the hole and led to safety. As the last group went in Flare followed after them to signal that they were the last ones and that James and Black were going to clear the floors above before following them. Black called the police as they stepped in the elevator to go upstairs.

The next several minutes or so were pure destruction and havoc.

They cleared the three floors above them of Plasma members, either knocking them out or tying them up for the police coming. Once they rounded up the last of the member they made their way to the bottom to go through the tunnel with Flare waiting on them while patrolling the area for any waking up Plasma members. Once out of the tunnel they saw the building they just left surrounded and raided by the police.

A job well done.

All the Pokémon were given to the local Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny for rehabilitation, relocation, and/or adoption.

All accept for one.

The Zoroark, now named Shade, grew on James and decided to join his team to become stronger and feel safer.

She hasn't regretted her decision.

* * *

James smiled as he looked at them in his bed. Looking back those memories, no matter how sad it was that they were put in those positions, they always made him smile to think they decided to join him after only barely knowing him.

If only getting a girlfriend was that easy.

Even worse is that because of this they both have a big distrust in humans, only showing their joyfulness and seductiveness to James. When they go out into the market they are calm and collected and always keeping a sharp eye out for suspicious characters, until of course they find an ice cream stand, to which they start jumping and running around like five year olds begging for James to buy one for them.

Sometimes he still regrets introducing it to them, burns a big whole in his wallet every time.

He made his way downstairs to get started on his breakfast before going on his morning routine run and workout. Once downstairs he was greeted by Arthur making his own breakfast, a couple pieces of toast.

* * *

Arthur's story isn't as grand as Lily or Shade but it's still a nice story. One day while out traveling James comes upon a scared Ralts being intimidated by a hungry-looking Poochyena. He released Flare to deal with him, who at the time was just a Monferno. Flare used Flame Wheel and knocked the Poochyena away, slightly hurt but enough for it to realize it wants no fight with the Fire-Fighting type, making it run away. James walked up to the scared Ralts and used a potion on him to heal any wounds he might have. The Ralts feeling better looks up at his savior. James reassures the guy that he will be alright. The Ralts hugs him, jumps out of his arms and runs back into the woods, likely going back home.

Fast-forward a year later.

On the same route, James was going out on his morning jog for a little bit. He then runs up on a Mightyena, just so happens to look like he recognizes James, making James recognize him as the Poochyena he stopped last year from possibly eating the little Ralts. However in this encounter, James has no Pokémon on him, leaving them at the center to heal after their last brutal training session. He does not back down however, he knows a few fighting moves to defend himself, curtesy of the now fully evolved Flare. He gets in a fighting stance to center himself and prepare for the worse. The Mightyena rushes forward ready to get the jump on him before he has time to react.

Not even a few steps in was he blind sided by a Magical Leaf and knocked out.

James was dumbfounded, wondering what could have done that.

Out of the bushes came a smirking Kirlia.

Putting two and two together, James guessed that this was the Ralts he saved a while back, now returning the favor. It was confirmed when the Kirlia ran to James and jumped into his arms and hugged him. They hugged for a good minute, exchanging "good to see you" and "it's been so long," you know the works. When James finally put him down, the Kirlia immediately asked to join his team. James without hesitation pulled out an empty Pokéball and tapped Kirlia on the head with it, receiving a ding without a single struggle roll, then let him out. During the short walk, deciding what to name Kirlia, James finally settled on naming him after King Arthur after the tall tale.

Henceforth, Kirlia was dubbed Arthur.

* * *

Arthur gave his greeting and went back upstairs to his room with his breakfast. James prepared himself to make a couple of eggs and some sausage patties for his own breakfast. It wasn't maybe five minutes later that the newest member of the team came downstairs, rubbing her eyes and still yawning, trying to chase away the tiredness so she can start her day as well.

Grace the Goodra.

She got downstairs just in time before James started cooking. She offered to help him and to make breakfast for the rest of the team like always. She had an interest in it ever since she joined the team, gave her the motivation to evolve into a Goodra early on, being her first evolution had no limbs and the middle stage being blind.

* * *

You can interpret the feel of her origin story but to sum it up, since it's not really that interesting, as soon as James got off the plane to Kalos he was met with an apparent fan of his. His name was Kyle Turner, young, maybe about 12 at the time so 14 now, ambitious, and overall just a nice guy. James and Kyle talked for a bit while Kyle showed James around and introduced him to Kalos telling him the best spots, weather, Lumiose City, Champion Diantha and Kalos Queen Serena, his idols, and most importantly the Pokémon around.

Which is where we get to the new teammate, making her the sixth spot in a once again 5 mon squad. Kyle, as turned out, won a tournament recently with the prize being a Goomy. He said he didn't really know how to train dragons and didn't have much luck in it either. He said he had Flygon and an Altaria, two of the tamest dragons you could ever have. Flygon ended up going berserk upon evolution and flew away having to be shot down by the rest of his team, but it took a long time to do and he already caused enough property damage to get the attention of the local police, causing Flygon to be confiscated from Kyle. Altaria couldn't control her moves well enough and didn't have much confidence in herself, to the point where now she refuses to fight for him. She is still on the team, but out of her disappointment in herself she ran away twice and even hit Kyle once.

He asked for James to take the Goomy. He hasn't taken it out of the ball since the competition two days ago, being scared of what might happen otherwise. He knows James has experience with dragon types, via the Sinnoh Lily of the Valley conference, and knows that Goomy would do much better with James than with him.

After a long debate, James finally agreed to take the Goomy and add her to the team. The two said their farewells and went their separate ways. James entered the forest to be alone so he could let Goomy out and tell her the situation.

As expected she didn't take it very well.

Not as expected she didn't freak out. Instead she used Rain Dance.

On Herself.

She slouched, and did it over herself. It was like her version of silently crying in the shower so no one can see the tears. It's what a sad anime character would do if they were suddenly upset but in slow motion. The cloud appeared and slowly formed over her but only big enough to cover herself. It was hard for James to watch her big bright smile fade away so fast.

James stayed with her and comforted her. He reassured her that no matter what she would not leave his team and they will be strong together, enough to take on any and every challenge. She calmed down a little at that and slightly perked up, still with tears in her eyes, and made a cry to ask if he was serious. James confirmed. She jumped up to his neck in a sudden moment of pure happiness and gave a series of cries of her name that sounded like she was lightly gargling while she spoke. While on his neck, her gooey body was able to wrap around his neck and give him her version of a hug, allowing her to also furiously lick his cheek to further show how happy she is that she has someone who won't leave her abruptly like Kyle did.

She had a feeling it would just work out.

And work out it did. She ended up evolving really fast thanks to a number a long rain storms in a row, giving her ideal weather to constantly train in. It only took about just less than month to fully evolve, evolving twice in a day since the evolution from her second stage evolution, Sligoo, in Goodra had to be in the rain and only required about a battle or two with the other team members. Hardest three hours of her life being that Sligoo is actually completely blind.

Wasn't ready for that at all.

* * *

James looked at the time and realized he's a little bit late for his morning run. He leaves Grace to finish cooking for the rest of the team while he went to put his running shoes on for the quick jog. As he puts on his shoes he's greeted by a lick on the face by the veteran LeRoy the Stoutland. James rubbed off the slobber on his face while LeRoy snickered and sat on his haunches. James acknowledges him with a mock-grumpy hello and then told him to go see if Grace needed any help cooking breakfast. He barked and turned to trot into the kitchen.

LeRoy is actually a sad case. He's a veteran in the sense that he didn't start his career with James, he started it with his mom. She was a great battler back in her day when they rules weren't as set in stone and it was much more gruesome and not child friendly. It was her generation actually that forced the rules of battling to have to be stricter in order to keep the minimum trainer age down to 10 years old. LeRoy was a valued member on the team, spending most of his time with her as a Herdier, his previous evolution. He took down most of his opponents, being a secret threat to everyone his mom went up against.

One day, however, while mom was going for her 6thgym badge at the Driftveil city gym versus Clay, he was going up against Excadrill, one of the more feared members of the team. Clay was already angry that he was about to get swept with Excadrill being his last Pokémon. His anger could be seen written all over Excadrill's face as well. Even though LeRoy was on his last legs, he continued to fight, not wanting to give up until he won. Excadrill, with all his might, launched an overpowered Earthquake at LeRoy. The earthquake shook the entire underground arena, walls and ceiling included. LeRoy jumped and backflipped into the air to dodge the earthquake and charged up a Shadow ball. Before he could throw it though, disaster struck.

In the form of a large sharp pillar landing on LeRoy's back sending him straight to the ground, smacking him against the rock surface.

With the added effect of a broken spine.

LeRoy woke up in the hospital. All people and domesticated Pokémon know that if a Pokémon is in the hospital, that means they are either dying, or severely crippled beyond the repair of the Pokémon center's rejuvenation machine.

Neither of which were good, obviously.

It was a few minutes later that he finally noticed that his owner was in the room with him. He tried to stand up but quickly understood why he was placed in the hospital. Sharp pains entered his back at the slightest of movement, making him give a series of pained howls and growls. Mom came over and tried to get him to relax and to stop moving. She promised everything was going to be alright. She went into her pocket and pulled out what looked to be a small pillar made out of metal that was severed diagonally in the middle with the pillar having three different types of stone in each severed half, all surrounded by a gold colored lining.

Their sixth gym badge.

Mom told him that Clay felt bad for getting out of control and letting Excadrill do something like so he ended up stopping the fight and award them the badge plus promising to give them any help they needed free of charge anytime.

LeRoy was happy they at least got the victory, and went up to lick her face in congratulations….and was quickly reminded of why he was there in the first place.

It took a little while before a tall, pale man in a white coat came in with a clipboard and sat down in the nearby chair with a heavy sigh, indicating the worse probably happened.

Then he confirmed it.

LeRoy was crippled with his broken back. The recover would take a couple years before the pain finally went away. He would likely never battle again. The only good news in this whole thing is that he wouldn't need any surgery, which I guess saves some money that they don't really have to spend. But he would need physical therapy later to be able to walk properly again.

In other words, this was LeRoy's early retirement.

Fast forward about 20 years or so. James has turned ten and is about to set off with his new Chimchar starter. Mom stops him right before he's going to leave, and she requests for him to take along LeRoy, now a Stoutland. Now James was thinking the same thing as some of you. Wouldn't he be overpowered since he was able to get to the 6thgym with her as a powerful Pokémon and is already fully evolved. Well, being injured for so long does have its effect on Pokémon just as much as it would a human. Should a muscle not be worked out for a good amount of time it starts to lose its strength and its build. When a Pokémon doesn't practice or train for a long time, they start to lose the power in their moves. Stoutland has been out of action for about 20 or so years, not having the motivation to do much once he got injured even though he fully recovered after 3 years. He may have done the occasion growl or show a fire fang when he felt threatened but never really used an actual movie or much training. So in a sense, he's just as powerful as a level 15 or so Pokémon. Therefore only 1stgym power with the 6thgym intelligence and experience.

After that long winded and a little bit more of convincing, James finally agreed, and left with not one, but two Pokémon on his journey.

* * *

Finally James was ready to take his morning jog. Going through the living room to get to the door, just like every morning, he groans, walks to the TV, turns it off, and sets the remote down next to the single strongest lazy Pokémon that has ever lived, as he snores away.

Flare the Infernape.

Arm drooped off the couch. Nose bubble filling up and shrinking with ever in-and-out breath. Tongue hanging off the side of his mouth with his mouth wide open. Loud snoring to top it off. Think of a real cartoonish sleeper and put that on a monkey with fire on his head and arm. The living incarnate of laziness at its finest moment. It's amazing that this right here can take on the most powerful legendaries and win or come just that close, all by himself.

He has his moments of hard work, when he wants to that is. Anytime he comes upon an opponent that beats him by itself or when only taking very minimal damage from the previous battle to the point where it shouldn't really count, he trains day in and day out, all through the night, for as much as two weeks at one point, until he either beats it, he beats someone who beat them, or he is confident that he can beat someone more powerful. In this period of training, he never once accepted a TM or tried to learn a new move. He only stuck with what he had so there is no surprises, no complaints, no claims for cheating, just more power, and a fair and square one-on-one battle.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Flare joined the team like any other Sinnoh starter would: through the now two-year retiree Professor Rowan. James didn't have any other pick besides Chimchar. He got there second among the three trainers but was lucky enough that the kid in front was looking to be a Steel-type specialist, therefore choosing Piplup. James, Flare and LeRoy tore through the league before meeting their third team member.

Another story for another time.

James shook his head a bit, not wanting to stay on those memories too long and avoid losing himself again. Right when he was about to walk out the house again, another distraction occurred. Lily came downstairs, wanting to know where he was going. James replied that he was going on a morning jog and wouldn't take too long. Lily asked if she can come with, as "protection." James kindly told her that he wanted to go on a solo run this time…..and made the compromise that she can tag along in her Pokéball if she really wanted and he'll let her out if there is any issue. She nodded and used the quietest Extreme Speed to go to her room and grab her Pokéball. Once back, she returned herself, and James caught the ball in midair and attached it to his belt. Finally, he went outside, locked the door behind him, and went on his run.

No More Interruptions.

On his jog, he takes in the scenery. Quiet, save for the few rustling bushes and faint Pokémon cries, very green and flourished agriculture, lots of trees of all kinds with Oran and Nanab berry trees being the most common. These are some of the best jogs in James' opinion. Just him. It allows for a clear mind and for him to run off any bad dreams or bad thoughts or bad situations or bad memories, and just lets everything flow out of him through sweat and fatigue. He used to do this every time he was upset, but now he restricts it to just every other morning. It lets him start off the day with a clear head and makes him slightly more carefree and not as easy to upset. It's like after-climax clarity, but to him, this lasts a lot longer and is much more effective. Like a little bit of heav-

He's suddenly jolted out of his thoughts by being tackled from behind landing on his stomach. Probably should have guess that the bushes rustling was Nala.

"Two days in a row? You must be really eager to get some ice…" he turns around to see the most menacing, battle-hardened, Arcanine he has ever laid eyes on. Bigger than most of its species, battered with scars and unhealable wounds, and badder than any Pokémon he's gone up against. James' horror quickly intensifies as he sees the pure rage etched into the face of the Arcanine, as well as the large clawed scar over his right eye, he sees the sharpened fangs of the creature, along with a chipped tooth, and worst of them all, his trainer belt, equipped with the only Pokémon he brought with him to help him, is inside the powerful jaws of the beast.

"…cream." He finishes his sentence ironically.

James quickly counts his sins, knowing this could be his last battle.


	3. Chapter 3: The Battle

**Key: 1 year = 4 seasons**

**Guilbeaux pronounced (Gil-bo)**

**If there are any details that should be clarified please tell me because I'm very sure I overlapped something or forgot about a certain detain in the previous chapters.**

**Don't get use to the speed of my uploads I just have a little more time on my hands than usually as of now.**

**Thought and prayers to the victims of the West Texas mass shooting and those that have weathered or are about to weather Hurricane Dorian.**

**I do not own pokemon.**

* * *

_Chapter 3: The Battle_

Den, 1 hour ago:

Nala dreamt.

James has been her only dream for as long as she can remember. Every dream was different but they all ended exactly the same way.

With James saying "I love you!"

It didn't matter how the dream got there. It may have been them just playing around, maybe they were battling tough opponents, some that were a little more intimate. She had many variations of the first time they met. They weren't all happy either, she had nightmares sometimes, even arguments with James, but again they all end with the same phrase.

I love you.

She would do anything for him if it meant getting him to say those words to her with meaning. To tell her or show her that he really truly loves her. To be able to be his and for him to be hers. To cuddle with him romantically, to protect each other, to make love to each other, to happily die by each other's side.

What she wouldn't give.

Her current dream was like many others. She was in bed with James. She was cuddled up next to him in a slightly more humanoid form, with her arm wrapped around him her head lays on his muscular chest. His arm wrapped around her, stabilizing her head and hugging her closer to his body with his hand on her lower back, intertwined with her real tail and dangerously close her shapely ass. They lay on a large area made of soft sand and other materials and minerals designed for comfort, big enough to have 5 fully-sized Pokémon on it. The room was a mixture of James' room and Nala's quarters. Lots of decorations that made the room serene and created a sleepy atmosphere or a sexy one depending on the mood you were in. A theme with Nala's dreams was that she never had a set setting. The only thing that was set was the type of area, however, the design of them, the decorations, they could change in the blink of an eye and you would only notice if you were paying attention. One minute there were beautiful flowers, then it was berries, then maybe nothing at all. For Nala though, she put most of her focus on James not on the dream. Therefore, the setting didn't matter because he was there with her.

James quietly peacefully asleep while Nala is wide awake but enjoying the warmth and comfort of James' naked body. It was morning. Meaning it's another dream where her and James had great night of fun. That put an even bigger smile on her face. She closed her eyes an hugged James tighter than before, not wanting the moment to be over. She feels another hand caress her face and opens her eyes to see James' beautiful brown eyes staring deep into hers.

"Good Morning beautiful!" his sexy voice complimented her, causing her to melt into his arms and chest even more.

"Good Morning James!" she could barely reply through her infatuation.

"How did you sleep?"

"Better than I have in a long time. You were great like always."

"I do my best to please you Nala."

"Hehehe, you flatter me," she blushed and turned away to hide her blush.

James gently grabbed her chin and turned her towards him, and surprised her with a kiss and the nose. Her blush intensified.

"You know you are so cute when you blush. You don't have to hide that from me," James comforts.

"Well you know what to do to really see me blush."

"Don't mind if I do."

She closed her eyes, ready for her long awaited morning make-out session with her lover…..but it never came. She tried to open her eyes but it became much harder to do so. She couldn't feel her afterglow from her previous night, her infatuation was slipping away.

She was waking up.

* * *

Slowly gaining consciousness she is met with a huge headache. She was very disoriented. Like she had been knockout or put into a deeper sleep. Gaining her eyesight back a bit she noticed she was outside and it was daytime. She seemed to be in some kind of shrubbery and it looked somewhat familiar but she couldn't seem to pinpoint it. There were basically no signs as to where she was. She looked to her sides and now just noticed that the twins Dawn and Dusk were with her. She tried to open her mouth to asked what happened and why she is outside, but she couldn't. It was like her mouth was glued shut. Then she tried to move towards them, and realized that she couldn't move her whole body, save her head. She started to panic a little. It wasn't until she saw the glowing eyes of Dusk that she realized that she was in deep shit. The only times Dusk uses her psychic powers on other when she isn't being threatened is to help punish someone, under the pack leader's orders. She didn't know what was going to happen, all she knew was that she was going to be on the receiving end of something very painful. She looked at Dawn with pleading eyes.

"I'm sorry, Nala" Dawn whispers her apology "we are only following orders, there's nothing we can do."

As if on cue, the area starting heating up suddenly and quickly, Nala sensing the temperature change before the other two, due to her being one of the elemental types. It was enough to even cause her to sweat. Or it may have just been because she knows why it was getting warmer.

Steps could be heard in bushes. They came slow, they came heavy, and they came louder with each step. You could tell he pissed since every time a step was taken you could hear the sizzling of grass and plants under it as they were burned away by the incoming behemoth. His red eyes glowed through the shadows of the forest and the closer they got the more they intensified, along with the ferocity of the growl of their leader and most feared and respected Pokémon of the pack.

Ven.

* * *

All the rumors about him are true, and all of them make him even more deadly. He started as a human's Pokémon. Not just any human though, he trained with a man named Samuel Oak while he was Champion of the human region of Kanto. However when Samuel retired, he released all of his Pokémon back into the wild, including Ven. When Ven was released he was angry, upset and destructive. Destructive enough to get the attention of police. It was a long fight, but they were able to bring Ven down and sedate him.

When Ven woke up he was in a completely different area with no clue as to where. He spent most of his time trying to figure out where he was and how to get food to eat. His searching was interrupted by a Houndoom, the previous leader of the pack. Ven did not want to fight him, but was forced to after the Houndoom blindsided him after he turned around and use Bite on his neck and a powerful scratch on his face, leaving the eye scar, arguably the most important one, to still be seen today. It was then that Ven decided that this Houndoom maybe his last mistake. The only two moves that Ven used were Flamethrower, to match and utterly destroy the one sent to him and burn the Houndoom, despite type resistance, and Extreme Speed that launched the Houndoom through a tree, breaking his back, and into another one.

Breaking his neck.

The Houndoom slumped, unable to move, unable to battle.

Unable to live.

That was 48 seasons ago.

* * *

As he stepped into the light to be seen by Nala, Dawn, and Dusk, more of his various scars and wounds were exposed. The battle on Route 10 where an Aegislash was wielded by a Barbaracle cut into his right foreleg during the fight before being brought down. The attempted coup staged by some of his most trusted followers and fighters, three members of the powerful Umbreon Brigade, visible across his entire left side, being the first, and now only one, to survive the deadly Triple Finish, consisting of all three using Beat Up to create clones that would perform a serious of attacks and it finished with the three synchronizing up as the target was disoriented with three Double Kicks in the same place. The sequence causes nerves to stop working, bones to be broken, and the heart to be shut down. Ven survived and punished them himself for their treason in a matter of seconds. Various other proofs of battle littered his body and every one of them come with a different story.

And every single one of them is true.

"Open a link, I want to keep this quiet. I know she knows telepathy but it causes her problems. I don't want her to pass out on me, she needs to be awake for the whole experience," Ven said in his deep, snarling voice but quietly.

Dawn's eyes began to glow and both Ven and Nala felt the opposite's presence in their head.

"How many times do I have to warn you about humans before you finally listen to me?" Ven asked rhetorically.

"How many times do I have to explain to you that not all humans are bad?" she quipped back.

"When they distract you from doing your responsibilities to the pack that should already be a clear sign that you shouldn't spend time with them. It's bad enough that they would throw away the second they don't want you no more, no matter how long you all have been together. He doesn't care for you. Get that illusion out of your head. It's been 8 seasons Nala that you betrayed me and lied to me. Did you not think I would find out? I gave you a warning last time but I should have known your stubbornness would get the best of you. All this for some pathetic human who would throw you away like trash."

"He's not like yours. James is kind and sweet and treats me like family just like the rest of team. Just because yours released you doesn't mean he didn't love you and that doesn't mean you have to condemn every single human to the same wrong conclusion."

"Then I guess I'm gonna have to keep you from that human the hard way, and for good," Ven narrowed his eyes.

Nala narrowed her further and snarled as best she could. "Fuck you Ven! I don't care what you do to me. Rape Me! Torture Me! Kill Me! I will never submit and I will see my precious human if it's the last thing I do."

"You sound like you're in love with this stupid human."

"…I'll love him to death."

Ven's ear perked up and he smirk. It was more menacing then any anger he could show. "Then I hope he was good to you."

"So your solution is to kill me then, so be it, I'm not afraid of death."

"Who said I was going to harm you."

"What are you talking about."

Ven smirked again and removed some of the bushes to reveal James locking the door to the house.

Nala paled while Dawn's and Dusk's eyes widen not even knowing about this plan.

"Y-you wouldn't d-d-dare. H-he he did nothing t-to you."

"Oh trust me I would, and I am. You are too valuable to me to be killed Nala and too valuable to this pack. Plus as unruly as I can be, you know it's very hard to get me to kill you if you don't attack me. I knew you wouldn't listen to reason so anything less than death was not an option. But if there is no human to go back to, then there is no reason to be distracted. Dawn!" he addressed the Espeon, "Hold the shrub open so she can see, I want her to see the whole fight. To witness her full punishment. She brought this upon him, what's going to happen to him is her fault. It's going to be slow." He walks closer to her. "It's going to be painful." He gets in her face and lowers the volume of his thoughts to make it clearer and more serious. "He will be screaming. And you, Nala dear, are going to witness all of it."

"Sir please you don't have to do this." Dusk tried to stop him.

"There is no other way to get my message across. If she listened the first there would be no problems, but she deliberately deceived me, and that cannot go unpunished and killing her only means she wins, and there's no reason to harm her if she didn't harm me first. This rebellion attitude will stop now." He turned away, stopped, and looked back.

"This...is why I'm Alpha."

"But sir wait-" But it was too late.

Ven rushed out of the bushes using a Quick Attack and left Dawn to perform the command given to her.

As they watch James jog they watch Ven rush to him, grab his belt within his teeth as he jumps on him simultaneously and stands over him.

* * *

James watched as the beast tossed his belt away to the side before returning his gaze back to him.

"You have been a thorn in my side for longer than you know human" Ven more so talking to himself.

"What have I even done to you? I'm sorry if I did something or my team did something but I've never noticed you for the two years I've live here" James replied.

"So you can understand me, makes more sense than I thought" Ven unfazed.

"Yeah,... I can."

"Hm. Doesn't matter, you will die here human. I hope Nala was worth it."

James' eyes widened knowing this was going to be personal.

"I won't be going down that easy." James moved his knees to his chest and his hand to his head and flipped up, kicking the Arcanine in the gut and on to his back hard. "I may be a human, but I have hand-to-hand combat fighting training from a Lucario, Gallade, and an Infernape. I may still be weaker than you but if my life is on the line I'm gonna make you really work for it."

Ven rolled over and got back to his feet and snarled "What arrogance from a human. I was a champion's Pokémon. I could beat you without my moves."

James moves into a signature Lucario fighting stance. His dominant right leg back as both hands come up to his chest as balled up fists. "Then I guess it should be easy for you."

"It will." And just like that the fight ensued.

Ven charged at James with speed that looked like he must have used a Quick Attack. Only to be met by a well-timed roundhouse kick to the jaw, turning his momentum against him and forcing him to hit the ground and start sliding on his side. Ven got up and wiped his face, seeing blood on his paw.

"Heh, another battle scar. I'll add it to the collection." Ven rushes again and jumps in the air, but misses as James ducks under the attack, somersaults forward, makes a beeline for his belt to get release Lily out of her Pokéball. He doesn't make it as Ven beats him there with an Extreme Speed and gut checks him away. Now it was James' turn to tumble and roll on the ground. He sprung up midroll and slid on his feet to prepare for the next attack. Ven took another approach this time. He used his natural speed to run circles around James and try to make him dizzy enough to blind side him. James was thankful to Lily in that moment for her training, knowing to stay calm, close his eyes and feel the shift in the wind and not worry about the blur running around him. He focused and centered himself. Then it happened.

The wind changed directions.

He spun directly to back left and dropped to the ground letting the Arcanine aim just over him. As his head reached a point, James raised his legs up and grabbed him by the neck with his powerful runner thighs and rolled through, causing Ven to be flipped onto his back with James situated on his neck. Once he rolled through James launched sucker punch after sucker punch into the beast's jaw taking as much out of him as possible. However, he winded up a right hook a fraction too long and it gave Ven just enough time to react. Once James swung, Ven caught the hand in his teeth, and followed through in the swing, throwing James to ground and off of Ven. As Ven continued to hold the human's hand in his mouth he added on to the punishment and yanked his arm out of socket. James' scream was deafening, but quickly changed from one of pure agony to a war cry, as he took the opportunity to use his left hand and swing, and connect, a punch to the Arcanine's eye. Ven let out a loud whine and let go of James' hand and arm. Pull back and fell to the ground in pain. Ven was whining rubbing his eye trying to gain his sight back. James used the opportunity to use some of teaching of Flare and kneeled his way to a tree that was a couple feet away, breathed in deeply, and slammed his dislocated arm onto the tree, popping it back into socket and giving it feeling again. A painful feeling, but feeling nonetheless, and usable soon. Ven was turned away and still trying to gain his sight back, so James got back to his feet, albeit slowly, and charged the Arcanine as fast as he could go, and drop kicked him, recklessly landing on his hurt arm and once again screaming.

The area started heating up slightly. Looking over at the Arcanine all his hair was standing on end. He slowly got to his feet. The rage and heat coming off him was almost unbearable.

"Alright, human. You have proven your worth. But I'm Done PLAYING AROUND!" Ven charged up a Flamethrower and launched it at James.

James used all of his power to jump, dive, and roll out of the way in the nick of time. He watched the beam of fire continue and hit a tree, disintegrating it into nothing. James' eyes widened at the shear hidden power that this Pokémon possessed. He turned back to the Pokémon to see him charging another one and quickly got up to dodge the second beam as it flew passed him. This time, James decided to get the jump on him and ran towards him as he was charging another flamethrower. Once Ven released his flamethrower, James jumped up and over the Special Attack, brought his fist together, and slammed down on the Arcanine's head, disorienting him, and landing on his feet just barely. James brought his fist back up, still balled up together, and hit the Arcanine under chin, making him bite his tongue as it drooped out from the first hit. James followed up with a sweeping kick, putting Ven on his back once again, then quickly getting up and finishing his combo with a leg drop to the ribs, breaking one of them, and rolling away backwards.

James can feel his energy slipping away. The battle was wearing down on him and making him have to guess to just how much energy he actually has left, which his best guess would be next to none. He wouldn't be doing that one combo again but it at least got him some space and leverage. He saw his belt way to the side of him and was about to make a move towards it. That was until he heard the groan of the recovering Arcanine. He looked directly opposite of him and watched as Ven struggled to get up, who was closer to him than his belt was. He looked back towards the belt knowing that he will need to decide and fast. So in a moment of desperation, he got up…

And ran towards Ven.

He jumped and performed another drop kick, however this time he aimed at his back leg, hearing the bone snap, hearing the pained howl from the behemoth, hearing victory just that much more within reach. He got up and limped his way back over to belt knowing that if the Arcanine gets up it won't cripple him enough to not catch up to him.

Ven watched as the human looked as if he was escaping the fight. He looked to where he walking towards and visibly paled knowing that he doesn't have the strength to fight a Pokémon unless it had a quad-weakness to fire or was an unevolved Pokémon. Ven tried his best to get to his feet, very difficult considering he has a broken back leg. Using all his might he uses his front paws for stability while he uses his healthier back leg to raise the rest of himself up and try to keep balance.

James looks back and sees the Arcanine has made it to his feet. If the Pokémon can fight through the pain he will be caught and he will be dead. James speeds up his limping to hopefully get closer to his belt before the beast gets his footing together.

Ven knows that he can't use Extreme Speed, he needs all four legs to be healthy for it to work. Quick Attack isn't much help either. But if he times it right, Ven figured, he could hop over there using short bursts of Quick Attack. He tests out the idea to see if it's even possible. He charges a small one and hops slightly and got a little further than he would have gotten if he just hopped regularly. But it still wasn't far enough. The human was limping faster than he was a minute ago. He would have to get close enough to charge a big one and launch himself at the human. So he did another short one, almost falling over, and then another, slowly gaining on the human.

James was now at least a couple meters from the belt, but with how much ground the Arcanine was now gaining it seemed as if the belt was miles away. James got about a meter away before he tripped and fell to the ground now inches away.

Ven saw this and knew he had to charge up his long Quick Attack powered leap if he was going to get to the human first.

James used his good arm to crawl ever so much closer to the belt, finger tips away.

Ven gathered just enough energy and launched himself towards James ready the bite his face off.

James grabbed the belt as Ven was in midair, turned towards the airborne Arcanine, let him fall right into the open belt. James outstretched his arms and closed and tightened the belt around the Arcanine's neck, stopping his air flow. As he held it out, the beast tried to bite down on anything he could get his jaws on, trying to make James let go. However James dodged all of his attempts and with every bite shot he hit a different pressure point on the Arcanine's neck making him not only making him flinch also to lose more feeling in the broken legs, Thank you Arthur. After enough successful hits to the right nerves, James kicked on the broken back legs to get the attempts to stop and for the Arcanine to stumble over onto its side, where he then took the opportunity to get to the Arcanine's back and pull as hard as he can with his feet pushing down on his back.

James screamed.

He put all of his remaining strength into this hopefully finally maneuver. He continued to scream for as long as he held on and pulled. Then in a moment of pure rage and extra adrenaline, he added more power to his pull and seconds later the moment finally came.

(CRACK)

The sound of his neck breaking.

The feeling of him no longer struggling.

The sight of his slumped form.

He survived.

"Oh. My. God." Dawn stared in disbelief. "He won!"

"YES YES FUCK YES HE'S ALIVE! LET ME GO! LET ME GO SEE HIM!"

"Dawn?" Dusk not really knowing what to do now, happy that the human survived, but now not really sure what's next.

"Let her go. We will be right behind her."

Dusk dropped her hold on Nala and she made a beeline to her human.

"So what happens now sis?" Dusk questioned.

Dawn smiled. "As the official witnesses, we must follow Protocol."

"Are you sure? But he's a human?"

"I've never been surer about anything in my life, sis."

"HELP JAMES IS HURT!" Nala screamed.

"Guess we better hurry." Dawn told her twin before rushing over to James and Nala.

"Please James you can't die on me." Nala wept through teary eyes.

"Nala, I'm too hurt, and the nearest hospital, is too far away, I won't make it in my condition" James responded in short breathes.

"Please James please don't give up on me, not like this" Nala nudged and licked him repeatedly.

"Just let me rest Nala…I'll be fine."

"We're here how bad is it" Dusk asked Nala.

"I don't know but he's falling asleep and I want it to mean he won't wake up."

"Stand back and stay quiet" Dawn announced. "I've only done this once before so I need silence to concentrate."

No arguments were made.

Dawn got started. She closed her eyes and focused on using Morning Sun. She sucked in as much sunlight as she could. But instead of healing herself, she stored it. She got enough sunlight to be able to fully heal herself from basically death, and held it. Then she used Helping Hand to increase its effects, then Baton Pass to push all the healing power into James. All three Pokémon watched as his body glowed and fixed itself. All his cuts closed up and blood disappeared, while his bad arm healed up and strengthened a bit.

When the light died down, James was fully healed, no marks on him at all. He started to wake up.

"Oh my god James are you ok?" Nala nuzzled him as he awoke.

"Actually," he realized, "I feel better than ok. I feel brand new."

"Oh I'm so happy!" She licked his face every which way. "You don't know how much scared me, I thought you dead."

"I guess a 'thanks' is in order than. I'm guessing it was one of you?" He addressed the two unknown Pokémon.

"That would be correct leader. It's a special healing technique of mine" Dawn answered.

"Well then, I thank you with all my still beating heart." He chuckled at his little joke. "And please if you could, talk normally, I can actually understand you and I don't like the feeling of someone in my head."

Dawn switched off her telepathy "How is that possible leader? I do not see any human contraption of any kind."

"Wait what...nvm" James turned his to reveal a scar on behind his right ear. "Back in Unova about 5 or so years ago, we, my team and I, were briefly a part of a task force that was created to stop this evil organization known as Team Plasma, bent on liberating pokemon from humans, only to then steal them and use them to take over the region. During a raid I had sent in my Feraligatr, ironically named Gator, to investigate and destroy if he was compromised. There was no signal for a good 10 minutes of nothing. I decided to go in myself to see what went wrong. But as soon as I opened the door there was an explosion, where I blacked out."

"You never told me about this" said Nala.

"It's not a happy story, I don't like talking about it and everyone that knows the story knows that."

"...continue."

"I woke up in a hospital, the doctor said that I've been unconscious for 12 hours and legally dead for 6 minutes. The damage was a fractured arm, third degree burns on my chest, and the loss of hearing in my right ear. They said the earpiece that I had that translated pokemon speech had fried my eardrum. Lucky enough the professor of the region, Professor Juniper, had a prototype she has been working on, a microchip to be surgically implanted into my ear that would theoretically allow for one to not only have better hearing but to understand pokemon as if it was a first language." Once again James exposed his scarred ear. "Obviously I got it and it was a success."

"What happened to Gator" now Dusk was really interested.

James' demeanor fell. "The search crews looked everywhere. Everything was destroyed save for two surviving pokemon but were not able to confirm any other pokemon there except for one." James reached under his shirt and pulled out his tooth necklace. "This tooth was the only thing they could find of him and I wear it in honor of him. I do sometimes wonder if he's still alive since they never found a body, but every time I think about him I get really depressed. I just have to accept it for what it is."

"I'm sorry that happened to you leader, no one deserves to die like that" Nala comforted.

"Ok wait! You just did it again. Why do you keep calling me leader?"

"Oh silly me! We did forget that part."

"Forget what part?"

Both the Espeon and Umbreon looked at each other, nodded, and then bowed down to James.

"No WAY!" Nala gaped.

"What, I still don't get it?" James wondered.

"As by the permanent decree of the first successor, I, Dawn…"

"And I, Dusk…"

"As witnesses to the trial by combat, hereby confirm the defeat of Ven the Arcanine, via death"

"Making you, James Guilbeaux the human, the new leader of the temporarily named Pack James until changed or confirmed by your orders." They rose.

"We are now at your service until your demise, or ours, which ever comes first."

All James could do was stare in disbelief.

"…What the hell?"


	4. Chapter 4: The Decision

**Review rant upcoming, you've been warned:**

**So there's someone apparently mad at me for not wanting to deal with guest reviews and some other stuff on my Bio and I don't really know how to say "I don't care" in a way that doesn't make it seem like I'm trying to kiss up to them and doesn't make me seem like hypocrite. **

**I never said managing reviews would be easy either I just don't want to deal with them. Plain and Simple. Sorry to those that may have something super important to say that don't have an account but it's not like it's hard to make one. It's just simply if it's something you want me to see then make sure I can't get rid of it. Otherwise it looks unimportant to me. I want to be able to have some identification even if it's just a username, something better than just Guest. If that's possible without making an account then by all means go ahead but give me something to work with.**

**It's nothing personal, and everything else said on my Bio is not attacking anyone specifically, though if you match the criteria for the bad people I characterize you may want to get that fixed. It's just so I don't have to address it 5 million times. Just me being cautious for myself because I do have issues with being subconscious about things I do anonymously or with anonymous people, this site and this story included.**

**I'm not trying to sound all high and mighty and if that's how I come off than sorry but I wouldn't call myself arrogant. Asshole sure but it's out of not wanting to deal with bullshit, not "haha Im better than you."**

**I appreciate any love that is given through guest reviews but please get an account so that I may look at it.**

**And this goes for everyone reading this, if I don't personally think of you as someone I can turn to, you are really absolutely nobody to me. Just someone who decided to read because you were bored, you were interested, or you were sent this because you needed to read it. It does not matter what you think about what I say. It does not matter how you respond. It does not matter what anyone else wants for me to say. At the end of the day why should I care what you think when I either don't know who you are, or I don't ever talk to you enough for your opinion to matter in my life, that goes for both me and you. I don't do this for money. I don't do this for fame. I do this for me and me only. My personality shouldn't change your opinion of the story and if it does, then hope it was a good read while it lasted but do try not to ruin the experience for others. This may be written at first for a specific person or people or for the general population, but you won't ever know that unless I tell you that because it's not important. Until I ask for your opinion, I don't care what you have to say behind a screen. So why would you let the same thing happen to you? You don't know me and I know even less about you. Waste of time for both sides.**

**I apologize to those that sat through my rant, please don't let that stop you from enjoying the next chapter.**

**I do not own Pokémon.**

* * *

_Chapter 4: The Decision_

"Did I hear that correctly?" James questioned. "I'm a pack leader? What does this all even mean? And how do you guys even know my name?"

"Um…that last one would be my fault. Hehe!" James looked towards Nala's who sported a nervous cheeky grin.

"She does boast about you quite a lot, sir." Dusk chuckled.

"Someone PLEASE answer the other questions." James now impatient and still very much confused.

"Of course leader." Dawn bowed to him.

"And please," James interrupted, "don't call me leader, call me James, and don't bow to me I don't like feeling super high and mighty, we are all equals here."

"As you wish, James." Dawn took the mental note. "Now the explanation."

"Finally!"

"The Arcanine that attacked you was named Ven. He has been our longstanding leader for the last 48 almost 49 seasons now."

"Wait 48 seasons?"

"We count time by the seasons instead of years like you humans do. That would be about 12 years."

James quickly checked the math. "Ok I see…continue."

"He attacked you for a number of different reasons. All of which are no good in my opinion. But the main reasons being a personal vendetta against humans, and as a punishment for Nala seeing you all the time, them being almost one in the same."

"Explain."

"Ven preached day in and day out how bad humans are and to stay away from them. Dangerous this and slaveowners that, it got really annoying to me. But he was very good at getting his message across and the pack listened to him. They followed his word very closely. Even Nala did, too. That is until about two years ago."

"When I moved in and we saved each other's life."

"Precisely. When you came into the picture she became less obedient to Ven and a lot closer to you. Not that you are bad or anything don't get us wrong, we know how good you've been to our friend. But Ven refused to believe it or really hear much of it. The first time he caught her was about 4 seasons ago, or for you one year ago."

"Which I'm guessing explains why you were missing for a couple months?" James asked Nala to which she nodded and confirmed.

"He gave her a warning first time because at the time he was feeling generous, any other time she might have been severely punished, or he might have attempted to kill you sooner. But he didn't, he let her go, but she saw you again, and therefore caused him to take action."

"On me."

"But now you have come out on top, probably against all odds, and can now take your place as leader."

"Now wait hold on I don't think I'm the one to be the leader of a pack of Pokémon. I barely know how to take care of my own team. (GASP) LILY!" James rushes over to the now deceased Ven and takes his belt from around his neck and unclips Lily's Pokéball. He presses the release button on the ball. A beam of energy came from the ball in front of James, but before it could fully materialize the figure jumped towards James and wrapped itself around him. What formed was a now teary-eyed Lucario.

"I'm s-s-so g-glad you're ok. I-I was s-so w-worried about y-you" Lily said through short breathes and sobs. "I thought I was gonna lose you."

"It's okay. I'm here. I lived. Maybe barely but survived nonetheless Haha." James tried to lighten the mood.

Lily gets off him and smacks him hard across the face, translating to him not being funny.

"Ok, OWW! I may have deserved that."

"Damn right you did! You know how much you scared me? Do you know how long I was trying to get out of my ball to help you? You just had to make this run a solo one, didn't you? You. Could. Have. Died. And I could do was sit back and watch as you literally fought for your life. Why in the actual HELL would you keep the lock on the Pokéball? I demand an explanat-"

She was interrupted by James grabbing her chin and pulling her in for a smooch, knowing that this always works when she's all fired up about something allowing him to be able to explain himself or just in general calm her down. He pulled away after a few seconds.

"…apology accepted."

"I am just as clueless in this situation as you are, they are literally explaining everything to me right now," as he pointed to the two eeveelutions "and before you blame them for any of this,"

"I know, they're innocent, I can hear everything from the ball, like how you almost died on me."

"…Right." James sweat-dropped and nervously smiled. "You gonna be ok?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. At least you're alive."

"That's good. Now you were saying Dawn? It was Dawn, right?" He gestured the Espeon.

"That's correct, James. I'm honored that you memorized my name so fast."

"Get to it please?"

"Sorry! So as I was saying, we need you to come back to the den so we can announce you as the new leader."

"Okay wait now why couldn't there be someone else to be your leader? I'm just a human."

"A human that just defeated our leader in a trial by combat. Sure we may have been able to find a loophole in the rules if he was alive, but he isn't and therefore we can't leave without you."

"Then why can't I make one of you leader."

"With all do respect, sir," Dusk politely addressed him now, "neither of us want to be leader. It's a very straining task and we would rather not burden ourselves with leading an entire pack of Pokémon. In addition, we may be powerful," her eyes glowed to emphasize her point "but we do not possess the physical strength needed for a proper trial by combat, nor are we prepared to kill if it is to defend ourselves or our position. We would much rather be your guides, personal guards, advisers and record keepers. With Ven we were all four, but knowing the strength of your team we may not need to be your personal guards, and should you attempt to memorize the den and succeed, which in itself is a challenge and something Ven did not bother to do, you may not need us as your guides."

"A challenge? How big is your den?"

"Enough to accommodate about 1000 Pokémon at max, right now our count is at about 612, soon to be more with the birth of a few more expected any day now, but still more than enough room."

"UGHHH! Are you serious? Are you sure it has to be me? What if I just say no?"

"What do you think happens to a government without a leader?"

James takes a heavy sigh "Guessing it spirals into chaos?"

"Yes but much worse" now Dawn spoke up. "All Pokémon are very prideful, it takes a lot for a wild Pokémon to become submissive to rule by another Pokémon and many will fight to the death for it. There would be mass destruction. Not many Pokémon are that bright and some just don't care, but once word gets that there is no leader it will be pandemonium for every Pokémon to prove they are the best with all the fighting focused inside the den. See the problem yet? Our home will be destroyed, hundreds will die, whether they were fighting or not, and it will only stop until there is no more pack to leave, or no more territory to fight for with it all being destroyed. We would do better to not go back at all because I don't think I could bare to watch my people destroy each other all for a vacancy in leadership."

James sighed again. "Guess there is no getting out of this is there?"

"You can say no, but then you would have the deaths a lot of Pokémon, and the destruction of a large section of this Kalosian forest on your conscience. You would also probably need to move."

"Why is that?"

"Because part of our den is under it. If fighting happens in that area, which there mostly likely will, your house is coming down."

"Look James," Lily finally spoke up after her long silence and processing, "as much as I don't really like the idea, I think it's in our best interest to go with them. I don't know how the rest of the team will take it but I think we can convince them to hop on board. Think of it as another journey for us to help Pokémon, or just a longer mission."

"One down, five to go" Dawn cheers.

"Fine!" James exclaimed. "I will if and only if you can convince the rest of the team to go through with this. We are a team and always will be a team. If even one of them is not willing to at least try then I will not go with you girls, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna force my team into something they are not willing to do."

"We can work with that, at least it's not a flat-out no" Nala said happily. "Come on, we'll explain the rest and any other questions you'll have on the way back to the house." Nala lightly bit James' hand pulled him along.

"Ok so first and most important question, which will probably spur up a lot more questions," James began, "What will be the first things I have to do as pack leader? Like what are the inaugural procedures I have to accomplish? Do I have to speak, is there a task I have to perform, is there a ceremony? And how long does this last?"

"The whole thing will only last until tomorrow night since you had your trial by combat early in the morning." Dusk explains. "It's very simple actually. You will be brought before the pack where we will announce your triumph over Ven and that you are now pack leader. We will then let you speak before the pack and briefly just say what you believe in and what you stand for."

"So like an inauguration speech, okay not too hard. What else?"

"Then you will be shown to the important places around the den." Dawn spoke up. "We will show you the cafeteria, nursery, infirmary, public sanitation system, and the living quarters. Anything else you want to see will be done if there is time or the following day when we introduce you to the elders."

"Elders?" Lily asked.

"The elders are a group of old but wise members of the pack. They act as the main advisory group to the pack leader. Any requests, laws, decrees, changes, developments, all go through the elders before making it to the pack leader. They have no real power unless the pack leader gives them power. Ven gave them no such power but it's documented that there was a leader, two prior to Ven, that made them equal to what your human government calls a judiciary branch. Any time there was someone breaking his decree he would allow them to come up with the punishment for them, where they would need to come up with a unanimous decision on whatever the crime was. The punishment could be anywhere from a day of shortened rations to putting them to death, however at the time death was only for a crime of treason and only ever used once in the case for the leader of a potential overthrow from a rival territory."

"So this whole leader thing is more of a dictatorship?"

"It has the potential to be one, yes. Our system is not like one that is as structured or balanced as your human ones. We Pokémon give respect, loyalty, and power to the strongest of the pack. We believe that they should be the ones to protect the pack. Once they go down in battle, especially in war with a neighboring territory, all hope of victory is lost because the rest of the pack believes they aren't strong enough. Should someone feel as though they are stronger than the pack leader they are within their right to a trial by combat. However many times the pack leader had a few loyal to him that they knew were as strong or stronger then themselves as to place in front of them as an obstacle to the challenger, making it clear that if you can't beat their henchman you can't beat the pack leader."

"Then how could I ever stand a chance against a pack of over 600 Pokémon who have been told their entire lives that humans are bad and weak?"

"We are very sure you can get the message across." Dusk says. "We think you could be the one to change the minds of the whole pack even. There are a lot that will follow without question knowing that you did beat their pack leader fair and square. Others that would want to claim the throne for themselves won't challenge you. They don't know what you are capable of, except for commanding a small army of 6 Pokémon, so therefore you are unpredictable, even more so because you did it without your Pokémon team's help and you didn't have a weapon, just your wits and your strength."

"Y'all are gonna get me killed. My team will never forgive you for this."

"We won't let anything happen to you." Lily reassured. "You can bet on that."

"Is there anything else, I have to do for the next day and a half?"

"There is…one more obligation." Dawn thought for a moment. "Though we don't know how much of an issue it would cause you."

"There really probably isn't anything at this point that can make this worse."

"Um…ok, um, are you by chance single James?"

"I am…? What does this have to do with anything?"

"The final thing you must do as leader to be sworn in is to select your first mate."

"First what?"

Nala now got excited. "OMG OMG OMG PICK ME JAMES PLEASE I'VE WANTED THIS FOR SO LONG."

"What's this about? What's a first mate? You mean like a pirate?"

"No James, a first mate is the equivalent to the first lady. Meaning-"

"I have to pick a wife by tonight? You're kidding."

"That has been a law of the pack for generations upon generations." Dawn explained. "We are definitely not kidding."

"This is crazy. I'm just a human. I don't know anyone in the pack, and they all already hate my guts for the simple fact that I'm human. Like how did this become a part of my life. All I wanted to do was live in the woods, with my team, and wild Ninetails friend, in peace, where I don't have to deal with world ending threats and huge life changing problems, I just feel so thrown around all of a sudden like everything was just thrusted upon me at once like can't my life just stay nor-"

Nala kissed square on the lips, their first kiss, and shut him up for good. Surprise was all over his face, while Nala's was covered in bliss and happiness. She released him and sat back on her haunches.

"…apology accepted?"

"You don't have to immediately like it" Nala started. "But if not for you, do it for all those Pokémon who now need you more than ever. Do it for all of Kalos so that it may stay standing and not be destroyed by the rampaging Pokémon. But most of all do it for me. I love you, James. I have loved you since the day we met. You have treated me with the upmost care and respect, you are the nicest, bravest and most thoughtful being I could have ever hoped to meet. I don't want to be anywhere else but right by your side the entire way. I would gladly lay down my life for you because I know my sacrifice would not go to waste in your hands. I would be honored if you would make me your first mate James, should you decide to stay as pack leader. You've known me the longest in pack, though I guess I'm the only one you know in pack hehe, I know the ins and outs of the pack and I know almost everyone in the pack, therefore I could help you find who you need very quickly, and as a big added bonus, you won't ever get bored because I'll be right there with you."

James was speechless. He didn't know what to say. He never really thought about the possibility of being with a Pokémon romantically. Sure he's done some sexual stuff with Shade and Lily but he convinced himself that it was just for being a good person and respecting their wishes because they were in so much pain. But he thought about it for a second. Nala was really everything he could ask for in a girl. Honest, kind, loyal, trustworthy, and not embarrassed to be around him. The team loves her so there wouldn't be much conflict. Plus it's not like he can really say no to her or to caring for the Pokémon of the pack. And if he has to spend the rest of his life with any Pokémon he would definitely pick Nala without any hesitation.

The answer now seemed a whole lot more obvious than before.

"You're so sweet Nala. I would love to have you as my first mate."

Nala's eyes and smile widened. "OMG YES YES YESSSSSS!" She jumped up and kissed James once again. "I love you so much James you have no idea." She started to spin and dance in place showing her happiness. She couldn't contain herself. Regardless of the circumstances, she got what she has been wanting for way too long.

She confessed and he accepted.

Words could not describe how she felt right now. Though with how she's now chosen to roll around while laughing hysterically and squealing like a little girl, the rest of the group could make an educated guess.

"Before I forget, is there an actual job for the first mate, like anything else besides just wife of the pack leader?"

"She is your second in command, your vice, politically speaking." Dusk answered. "When you are not to be bothered or are out on business or other leader duties, she takes over in your absence. In the event of a catastrophe, meaning you aren't killed by someone directly and were instead just in an accident, she would be your designated survivor and inherit your position until she can appoint someone else into power."

"Wait hold on then, if she can take over for me when I die, why can't Ven's mate take the position now?"

Nala's head drooped a bit. "…That's… because she's dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know."

"You had no way of knowing so you are fine. She passed away at the end of last spring due to an illness she got from a Sitrus berry that wasn't quite ripe yet. None of the usual remedies worked and she died within a couple days of eating it."

"Damn. Well R.I.P. to her then. But we can't stay on that right now. Continue with the job description."

"There really isn't much else." Dusk said. "Unless there's something I missed?" she asked generally for either Dawn or Nala to confirm or take over.

"I know one thing you missed." Nala taking over for Dusk. "This is my favorite part. The main reason you had to find your First Mate by the night of inauguration, is because her very first job is to give you a very special welcome as the new leader."

"You don't mean…" James speculated.

"YEP! Tonight we will become one."

James, once again, was left speechless by another one of Nala's declarations. The idea of sex with Pokémon isn't foreign to him, but he was very much hoping to put this behind him, only having to do it the few times with Lily and Shade, and only really out of the goodness of his heart. At least that's what he wants to stand by. It's not like he didn't like it… there's just something about sex with a Pokémon that hits different. Should he decide to marry a human girl, getting use to something arguably better in the moment wouldn't really be good. It's like having cheap, low quality Little Caesar's all the time them having high quality New York Style Pizza for a long time, then suddenly going back for Little Caesar's, just something that was considered pretty good is ruined by just exploring variety. James for the moment rationalized the situation but didn't want to give an answer to this though and wanted to let Nala have her moment, if that would backfire on him, he didn't know, but he loved Nala too much to ruin her mood by telling her he didn't want her right after saying he'd choose her over any other. The plan for waiting for a human companion is becoming a lot less possible at this point. This could very well be the rest of his life. But again, he won't make the decision until his team agrees to it.

* * *

They finally arrived at the house, much to James' relief. When they all stepped inside they were greeted with the whole team seated at the table just finishing breakfast.

"Aye James" Arthur greeted while walking over to him with the rest of the team, "you were gone a lot longer than usual, did something happen?"

"Does it also involve the newbies?" Grace asked acknowledging the dual Eeveelutions.

"It's a very long story, and yes they are apart of it." James answered.

"Let's say we were in a hurry," Flare commented. "Could you quickly sum it up?"

"Geez you sound lazier than usual. Okay well TL;DR version is that I killed an Arcanine that attacked me on my run and now I'm a pack leader."

They deadpanned, while the ones who know what happened sweat dropped a bit.

"Um… ignore Flare, we need all the details." LeRoy ordered.

"Nah I think it's self-explanatory. OWWW!" Shade smacked Flare on the back of his head for the comment.

"Start talking." Shade reaffirmed LeRoy's order.

* * *

One long explanation later…

"…Why are wild Pokémon so complicated?" Flare complained.

He wasn't the only one of the team to think so. They are pretty much in a no-good situation, with no alternative, and no way to decline. They have no way out of this and that was the annoying part. Letting them "destroy" a section of Kalos was an option on the table for a good while, since it would have been mostly secluded to the forest where anything too close to a city would be handled by the police. That was until it was revealed that there were 600+ Pokémon, which could cover a large area, and their home would be caught in the crossfire early since they are over a section of the den.

"Welp, guess I'm gonna start packing." Arthur decided as he stood up.

"Wait, wait, hold on, we all have to be in agreement on this" Shade argued.

"Are you really going to say after what was said? It's not like I love the idea, but just like the rest of you, I don't see any other choice here. Though it's not really a bad thing, at least for me, I spent the first half of my life in the wild I know how it works, y'all are just spoiled brats. You heard what they said, a part of the den is under our house, meaning it's very close to here, meaning you can come back here anytime you want, it's not a full move. I'm simply taking the essentials that I don't feel like coming back for every day or stuff that in case of emergency there won't be time to go back for it. You should all do the same. Unless you would like these lovely Eeveelutions to go back to their home empty-pawed and start a massive 600+ side civil war, which will indeed destroy this home. The weight and training room may be Pokémon proof but not the rest of the house. I would prefer to keep this standing so I can make my morning toast when I want it." With that Arthur continued his trek up the stairs, whistling, and disappeared into his room.

Silence followed.

Everyone looked towards everyone else, looking for some kind of argument against, seeing if anyone had anything more to say on the matter. But no one stepped forward. As hard as it may have been they had to collectively agree on one thing.

Arthur always made good point.

"Well, you heard him." LeRoy finally broke the license. "Start packing. Meet back down here within the hour." LeRoy walked up to his room.

The rest of team followed.

"That went better than I expected to be brutally honest" Dawn admitted

"Well, as per the deal, the team is convinced, they said yes, so therefore, I will say yes, I will be your new pack leader." James declared.

"You don't know how much we appreciate you for this, James." Dawn nodded to him and sat down in relief. "Please tell us how to make it up to you, my sister and I would do anything, we are eternally grateful." Dusk nodded to confirm that Dawn spoke for both of them.

"Just stay close to my side. I'm obviously new at this and that alone makes me and the team big targets and will for the next few days. I'm sure they can handle themselves but me being ambushed by two or more Pokémon is much different than just one powerful one. I will need your knowledge and abilities until I can get the pack on my side and not have to worry about an early mass revolt."

"We will always be here for you to serve you, James." Dusk declared.

"And I will never leave your side." Nala came from the side, stood on her back legs, kissed him on the cheek, and whispered softly in his ear.

"You will always be my alpha."

James couldn't help but blush.

"Now go pack silly, we'll be right down here waiting on you."

James lightly chuckled. "Don't go snooping around." With that he went up to his room, closed the door behind him, and took a heavy sigh of relief and grief at the same time, while sliding down the door to plop on his butt.

The realization of his situation just now fully hitting him.

He was to lead over 600 Pokémon.

Ones that were taught to be cautious of and hate humans.

In a most likely underground home.

Which means a lot of different responsibilities dropped upon him all at once.

With a Ninetails as his "mate."

Including a bunch of other things that probably weren't told to him.

Whether for good reason or just a slip of the mind.

And the only way to get out of this without mass chaos, death, and destruction, was to die.

"Geez… let's get this over with before I start panicking and change my mind." He said to himself.

He started his walk. Anyone who has ever moved knows the walk. As he went around the room, looking at all the things he would miss, all the things he would eventually pack out of nostalgia, looking at every item as if the memory of why they are here is happening right now. His held items on the shelf collecting dust now just may come in handy again. A few unused special Pokéballs in a draw in his bedside dresser, there for emergencies or when coming a across a Pokémon that wants to be on the team, he'll have to keep those in a safe in his new room since he doesn't know what he's getting into but doesn't want to come off as the evil human that wants to capture them and use them as tools. The ones they were taught to hate.

His favorite part of room being his "small" trophy case. Small being that it only held 7 awards, but pretty big in the sense that 3 of the awards, trophies, took up a lot of space. Enough so that the other 4 awards, medals, could be hanged from the trophies. The trophies consisting of his placing at the conferences while the medals are mini-tournaments winnings from across the regions, each being hung from the respective regional trophy. Each award being special to either him or one of the team.

His special one being the only one they didn't win: a third-place bronze trophy for the Lily of the Valley Conference in Sinnoh. Anyone else in his position might have thrown it out knowing they were pretty much robbed due to terrible circumstance. But to him, it's the moment after that made it his favorite. After the award ceremony, when all hope was shattered, his fake smile for the pictures lost, and his will to continue battling temporarily broken, he was confronted by none other than the famed Sinnoh Champion herself: Cynthia. She congratulated him on a great job and talked to him about how she was rooting for him the whole way. It meant a lot coming from a Champion and idol. At the end of the long talk not only did he get her autograph on the trophy, he got her number and a letter, aside from the fact that it said he was one of the most promising trainers she ever laid eyes on, it doubled as a voucher, good for one use only, that guaranteed that as long as she is champion, and he brings the letter with him, he would be granted a shot at the elite four without having to win the league.

He had no intention on being the champion unless the fate of the world depended on it, which could very well be any moment nowadays, but the mere thought and recognition from her was something he will never forget.

After a good hour of memories, good and bad, and finding stuff that's been missing for who knows how long, his backpack was full. He carried some clothes, the Pokéballs in a sealed box and all the items he could find, which included a dragon scale from a past teammate, wherever he may be now, his mega-bracelet, equipped with his keystone, and a three-lock box that included two very special items, never used but once before, and only for the worst of situations, or should he go to attempt to be Champion. He did not want to take any electronics just on the off chance they had a thing against that stuff so he opted to leave them there until he could come back after he knows it's ok.

He went downstairs and was met with the rest of the team waiting on him. Everyone had a small satchel for their stuff, with the exception of LeRoy with his attachable boxes for transport. They are essentially light boxes that are attached by a vest to the body of LeRoy to help him carry his own stuff when he wants to, being the only one without apposable thumbs and not liking to ask others for help carry stuff all the time, he requested something like that be made for him, which once again Professor Juniper came through. He can put it on and take it off very smoothly, load what he needs into the boxes, close them up for safety if needed, and with his strength he can carry a lot of weight in the boxes. They have come in very handy for the team not just for him.

The items for the team likely consisted of a few of their favorite berries, their favorite held items, their own Pokéballs, and a few other accessories. The most notable accessories would most likely be Lily and Arthur's mega stones, Arthur's used up Dawn stone that he always had with him, and some "extra special accessories" for Shade and Lily.

"Guess this means everyone is ready to go." James got the group's attention.

"The whole team's accounted for and we are ready when you are." The natural leader of the team addressed James.

"Well I'm ready, LeRoy. I know we will be able to come back so not everything is urgent at this moment, but I have the rest of our hold items and Pokéballs just in case something goes wrong. I hope you all only have essentials assuming the worst."

"Of Course!" A round of agreement came from the team.

"…Shade and Lily?" he eyed them.

"What?" Shade answered for both of them.

James gave her that telling look.

"So? You'll your toy" "Hey!" "and we'll have ours. Worst case scenario if we can't come back for it and we get urges again guess who has to help us out?" she smirked.

James licked and bit his lips in frustration.

"Not that it's a problem or anything, because I especially would love to feel you ravish me once more, I'm still keeping to the deal as best as I can because I care for you."

"Ditto on that one." Lily backed her up.

"Fine! Just keep them away from the eyes of the young ones please? I'm not gonna have the talk with 100 different Pokémon."

"Will do!" Shade and Lily agreed.

"Let's just go already." James sighed and walked through the crowd, apologizing to Nala on his way past for Shade's comment, only to receive a sultry remark back causing him to speed up his trek out the door.

And with that they left for the den.

Towards the next new adventure.

Onwards to their new lives.

For the Pokémon that await them.

And the next chapter in their journey.


	5. Chapter 5: The Leader

**My excuses for being gone so long are as follows:**

**I celebrated my birthday.**

**Had a slight writer's block in starting the chapter.**

**When looking back at my notes my original plan wasn't to have what's in the chapter all here at the same time, I was going to split it up but then it wouldn't match the range of the other chapters. So it took a while to figure them out from basically scratch for the same chapter because they are the only heavily descriptive sections that I didn't have any sort of outline for them.**

**Also I did actually find a story that is similar to mine that is really good that started way before mine. I promise I didn't steal their ideas if my story sounds similar, which to me it does, but go check out "The Pack of Destiny and Life" by The Imperator 2 you. I spent time reading it and it's really well written and you all should definitely give it a read sometime. I'm sure there are more but this is the only one I've found thus far. The only thing I intend to take from this is maybe inspiration and the idea to have some filler, I don't want my story to end so soon but I can't have straight story throughout the whole thing I haven't set up this story for that.**

**I do not own pokemon.**

* * *

_Chapter 5: The Leader_

5 minutes later:

"So uh… where's the entrance?"

James was confused. He didn't see anything that would indicate a passageway of any kind to something underground. Then again, he never really knew what to look for in terms of Pokémon dens since he never looked for them, let alone really knew about them. They had been walking for a good while but not as far as he would have thought he had too. They stopped in front of a large wall of thick forest that stretched for miles on the left and right, no clear sight through.

"The entrance is about another minute walk, you'll get lost if you're not paying attention" Dusk answered. "Part of the reason is because most of the forest is enchanted with an illusion, one that us and some of the other psychics had worked on for a couple seasons straight. We are gonna give you and your team the ability to see through the illusion. It will not clear the way, it will just keep you from running in circles, which is the main purpose of the illusion. There is still a couple of key things to remember when you come through so that you don't end up lost anyways."

"Why the illusion?" Grace brought up what everyone was thinking.

"So that any humans or Pokémon associating with enemy territories were not able to easily find us. Wanderers could use the forest should they need to and even pass straight through it if they trekked through far enough, but they won't be able to just stumble and find it by accident and the discovery of any Pokémon den, especially as large as ours, being discovered by humans could mean catastrophe. Should you visit other dens, they may not have the same defenses as us but will definitely have their entrances heavily guarded and watched. Our system can't be broken by just some powerful Pokémon. This illusion like I said was made by some of the best psychics we have here so the might of one measly Pokémon could never outright shatter the illusion, it's good enough so that even with our full power, Dawn and I are not able to break the enchantment on our own. Good thing too, we spent many hot sunny days and some cold sleepless nights working on this project."

"I will ask that you all hold still." Dawn told them as her eyes glowed. "You may feel a slight pinch but don't worry it's harmless as long as you don't eat Pecha berries for the rest of the day and don't touch the pinch until the feeling goes away because then it may take longer."

"But wait how will this-" Shade stopped talking once her body suddenly glowed for half a second before the shine burst out and disappeared just as quickly.

"Don't worry it will."

Dawn eyes shined brighter before Shade could reply and James and the team winced at the uncomfortable feeling. Shade, Lily, and Flare were taking it the worst, Flare and Lily for being weak to psychic moves but Shade because she hasn't felt many psychic attacks usually being immune to them so not only was it slightly more painful not being used to something entering her mind, it was confusing, and that scared and freaked her out. She focused her attention on trying not to touch her head so that it would be over quicker. After about thirty seconds or so she was kneeling on the ground, claws extended and gripping into the dirt underneath, fighting off the pain. But it wasn't helping much. She went from freaked out to downright frightened. She brought her head down almost touching the ground trying her hardest to stop the flooding memories. Seeing her family trying and failing to protect her, the head trauma, the knockout blow, the ship ride, the forced evolution, the bad food and terrible treatment, how she was supposed to be a prized slave. Everything came back and hit her like PTSD panic attack on steroids. She lifted her head up and screamed. Her screamed was powered up by an involuntary Dark Pulse. Tears strained her eyes as she relived the terrible moments. She was about to scream again, charging up Night Daze, only this time she felt the pain slowly fade away. The memories still haunted her for a bit, as if they were going on at that very moment. Once the pain went completely away, her head started to clear, the memories fading enough for her to control herself and finally gain some feeling in her physical body, as if she had been asleep in a nightmare. She was still on the ground she realized but this time there was a soft weight on her back, but she dares not open her eyes to find out what it was.

"I'm here Shade. You will be okay. It's over now, open your eyes."

She knew James' voice anywhere. He had to be the soft weight on her, probably making sure she was alright and wouldn't actually use Night Daze since that would have hit everyone in the area. She trusted him enough to open her eyes and look around.

Then she noticed, like everyone else had seconds prior, that the forest looked… different.

It was thicker and clearer at the same time. Everything shifted to one place or another, making some small clearings appear in the midst of extremely thick forests. Almost like the illusion was just making it appear neater. A big difference however was that the trees, once barren, now were covered in fruits and berries of all kinds, even some that don't normally grow in Kalos due to weather or soil, though with a full pack of Pokémon there's bound to be at least a couple that can manipulate the weather and ground to grow what they want, or even just make them grow faster.

Dusk walked up to Shade since she was still down. "Shade are you-(HURK)"

Shade reached out a claw and grabbed Dusk by the next. She wiped the tears from her eyes and slowly stood up with Dusk in her grasp, glaring with so much anger and malicious intent that she could almost perform the actual move.

"Don't. Ever. Fucking! Do That. Again!" Her eyes narrowing and voice raising and gaining venom with ever pause of her voice.

"We do sincerely apologize, Shade." Dusk spoke for both her and Dawn as she was starting to lose her breathe from the hold. "However... that was the safest way... to perform the needed task. The only other way to do it... would be to do it directly, which would have taken much longer,... added much more pain, and if not performed correctly can cause terrible brain injuries. Please believe me... we were not expecting you to have a mental breakdown during the procedure. That has never occurred prior to this attempt... We didn't know."

Shade gave a heavy sigh of frustration knowing that it wasn't their fault but still being pissed off that it happened and still slightly shaking from the event. She released Dusk and let her fall to the ground, as she started hacking and coughing to gain her breathe back.

"If I may ask," Dusk continued, "do you know what might have caused such an event? For example, did you have some traumatic experience in the past? Maybe something you haven't you haven't completely recovered from? Or maybe-"

"I don't want to talk about it. Don't give me a reason to choke you again and not let you go." Shade gave her stern command, giving the simple yet firm warning that should she persist, she would regret it.

Still unsure Dusk looked to James, the pack leader, for the final say, and he quietly nodded and mouthed the word "later." Shade was content with that answer and motioned for her sister to take over.

"Come on then!" She broke the brief silence, "We got to get moving, most of the pack should be in the Main Meeting Square waiting for their daily instructions and morning speech from Ven, sooner we get there, the less rowdy they will be, and less likely to attack you for just showing up. Keep close and pay attention, we will show you the easiest tells for how to get back should you have to leave the den and main territory for any reason, be it political, or just forgot something your original house in the near future. There will always be a guard with James that knows the way back, but once the rest of you get accustomed to your new arrangements," Dawn referred to the team of Pokémon, "you might not need or want company around you, especially since you guys are strong enough to take care of yourselves should you need to. Understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Once you get use to here you will know it like the back of your hand… or paw." Nala interluded. James gave her a scratch behind the ears while pulling her towards him.

"First things first! This tree in front of us marks the entrance to the path easiest to take. If you look up you see a branch that hangs out from the solid wall of plants and trees. Now if you look to your left…. And then to your right…. Notice how there are no other branches or shrubs sticking out. Memorize that and let's move in." She got up on all four and strutted into the woods next to the tree."

Everyone soon followed.

* * *

There were so many twists and turns and things to remember along the two-and-a-half-minute route that it seemed ridiculous to James that there isn't just a straight-line path that let him get there in one-minute tops. Hit the Alolan Exeggutor shaped tree go left, go right at the Pecha berry shaped rock, reach a clearing with three Chesto berry trees and walk in the direction of the one with the lone Passho berry shrub not the two Niniku berry shrubs, the difference being that Passho berry shrubs always have three on them, no more, no less, no matter what, whereas the Niniku berry bushes grow in abundance and are slightly bigger than Passho berries. After passing the bush they were soon greeted by an extremely large-width old moss rock and this is where they the twins stopped and turned around to address the group.

"We're here." Nala exclaimed.

"Um… where is here?" Arthur now was confused.

"The area around us is also enchanted. A large radius from this point outward on all sides is impenetrable. No digging, no burning any of the ground away, at least for those that can actually see it, the illusion will play along for those that see the illusion only. But since we see the real thing then we have the ability to get to this rock, which by just touching it," Dawn said as she demonstrated by touching it lightly, and the massive rock moved on its own out of the way revealing a hole big enough for any sized Pokémon to get in with out much problem, maybe some really big Pokémon having to awkwardly walk on all fours but that's about it, "will reveal the entrance to the den."

The hole itself was very dark. The light from outside giving only just enough to see that you could walk in instead of having to fall ten stories.

"It's pretty dark in there, even for us that have good vision."

"This is where … the name was Flare correct?" a nod from the Infernape confirmed Dusk's thoughts, "this is where Flare and I will be most useful. As I know the way I will lead you guys. Flare, if you would be so kind as to stand in the middle and brighten your flame light on your arms and crown."

"Ugh if I have to I guess, haven't done it in a while without actually attacking so I guess I'm sorry in advance if it gets too hot. You have been warned."

"Noted. I will shine my rings as bright as I can but please do stick close as to not trip over anything. Would hate for something to happen to our new leader and occupants before we even got him inside."

"I'd hate for something to happen to my mate, too." Nala comments as she licks James on the hand that was scratching her and then onto his cheek.

"Let's just go already." Lily sighs as she squeezes past to walk alongside Dusk.

* * *

They made their way through the rabbit hole. Dusk and Lily leading the pack while everyone else fell in behind with Dawn flanking the group and Flare in the center. James stood back with Dawn and Nala to maybe figure some other things out about the den. The rest of the team huddled in the middle talking amongst each other, giving Dusk and Lily the little cover that they needed.

"Lily, do you mind if I ask a personal question?" Dusk softly spoke her question only loud enough so Lily could hear.

"Mmm, you can ask but that doesn't mean I'll answer." Lily rubbed the back of her in brief thought preparing for the worst.

"I am not going to force you to answer. I simply want to know your honest thoughts about the whole situation. Specifically with Nala being the First Mate."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why should that matter?" she asked trying to get out of the question knowing what Dusk was looking for.

"From what has been told to us, by Nala of course, you seem to be somewhat closer to James than anyone on the team. Plus it was noticeable that you seemed almost upset or disappointed that James accepted Nala as his mate, and uncomfortable each time it was mentioned what James would have to do later. It seemed like you-"

"Look." Lily sternly spoke, forcing the Umbreon to stop speaking. "I'm not particularly happy about the situation, none of us really are. The only one of us that really grew up in the wild was Arthur so he's the only one who could easily get use to this again. Shade was taken from her family, LeRoy was born in the care of James' mother, Flare was born in a lab, Grace was born as a contest prize, and I became a part of this team at a very young age. This was not my first choice but being put in this situation there was no other choice for us. It doesn't matter that Nala is First Mate, she is the only one in the pack that knows and likes James so it just fit. It is what it is. And who doesn't get uncomfortable hearing others talk about sex all around you?"

"It's very common for wild Pokémon actually."

"Well then please hold off on it until we get use to the new quarters. Look bottom line is no matter how much this situation infuriates me there's nothing we can do about it now, we just have to live with it."

"…I see." Skeptical, she faced forward and stopped, causing Lily to face forwards and stop, causing the rest of the group to stop.

To come face to face with a giant cylindrical stone.

"The stone is actually easy to move." Dawn said as she made her way over. "It's only here as extra precaution should anyone come down here unwanted and it keeps the light from the den out of this walkway to keep it dark. It's very dense and near unbreakable but again very light. Plus, when the first rock moves most of us can hear it so should it be an intruder we can prepare for an attack and ambush them as soon as this bolder here moves aside." She looked towards the bolder, her eyes glowed. "There's no one waiting on the other side so we should be clear to enter, they are probably in the Main Meeting Hall like I said earlier waiting on their leader." Her eyes glowed brighter and she moved the stone aside revealing a very well-lit room and stepped aside so the others could enter and so she could shut the hole back up.

The den really was something to behold.

It was lit up half by bioluminescent lighting and half the dim light coming off some small bunches of Morelull. A beautiful full lighting that spread to the outer edges of the den. Rock combinations where certain edges were lit up with several different neon colors to make it more defined and light the area around it, whereas the Morelull were tasked with lighting up the pathways a solid but ominous bright blue, as they lined the walkway while bioluminescent lights lit up the roof but slightly dimmer to make the Morelull more useful in those areas than others. To James it looked like a scene he saw in a movie once with Vikings and Dragon types.

"Alright well I gotta admit, this is amazing." Grace commented.

"We will give you guys the full tour later, right now we will need to address the pack before anything bad happens" Dawn interrupted their musings. "When we get there we ask that you wait for us to call you out of the tunnel so that we can introduce you, James, as the new leader, Nala as the First Mate and the rest of you as new members of the pack who as of right now are just bodyguards to James until you get settled in and James assigns you all new positions, if he does at all. For now please stay around him to make sure he stays safe so that no one attacks him while he makes his way to the podium."

"Shade!" Dusk called out.

She nodded her acknowledgement.

"Can you create a transparent illusion for your group?" Shade looked slightly puzzled.

"You mean make it look like no one is here?"

"Yes, apologies for the confusion."

"Yeah I can do that."

"Perfect then we will need you to do that until we call you out so that you can watch us before we present you all."

"Got it."

"We do also request that LeRoy comes with us since he is the only non-unique Pokémon of the pack, he can give us some slight protect should we need it, and because he might be able to help ease them into it." She turned to James. "With your permission that is?"

"That's LeRoy's call to make, not mine." James stated. "If he's comfortable with it then he can do it."

"Hm, guess I'll go up there with you two." LeRoy answer and moved to stand with them.

They walked down the tunnel to the Main Meeting Square. Enough so that Shade could hide them in a mini illusion for them to see the meeting area and hear the twins talk but far enough away so that they wouldn't be sniffed out if they weren't trying to find them. The group collectively realized that the twin eeveelutions were not at all kidding when they said there was over 600 Pokémon. The sight of so many Pokémon in one place, talking amongst themselves, acting civilized, straying away from the stereotypical "animal," was really something to marvel at.

There were entire species lines here. From your Growlithe and Arcanine, to your Houndour and Houndoom, and your Shinx, Luxio, and Luxray, to the Fennekin, Braixen, and Delphox. There was at least three or four of every eeveelution and two of each form of Lycanroc. There was surprisingly an abundance of Absol and Furfrou, considering Absol tend to be loners and Furfrou are more domesticated and don't normally like dirt. But to the truth of the Espeon and Umbreon there were only a good number of Stoutland and the rest of its line. There was a single Riolu, but no Lucario anywhere which caught the eye of Lily, no Gallade to be seen, no Goodra, no Zoroark, and no Infernape could be seen. It led them to understand a little better why LeRoy was the best choice to go up there. There were abnormal Pokémon like Greninja, Heracross, Ariados, some of the Gible line, a bunch of rock and ground types, every type had at least one species in the pack, but none related to them. Their attention was taken away by the quieting down of the pack as the twins and LeRoy had appeared on stage. Small murmurs could be heard wondering about why there is a Stoutland on stage and not their leader.

"Greetings Pokémon of the pack! We are starting the meeting on behalf of your leader, which will be our first and only important item on the mandatory announcements for the day." Dawn addressed the pack.

"Where is leader Ven?" a young slightly worried voice could be in the audience.

"As of dawn this morning, just a short time ago, Ven engaged in a trial by combat. He failed, the battle ended in the snapping of his neck through submission, effectively ending his life."

There was a mix of silence, cheers, tears, and jeers. There were obviously mix feelings about Ven when he was leader, which means there's probably stuff James will have to fix from Ven's campaign.

"HOWEVER!" she gained the attention of the pack back "the successor, I have faith, that he will be exactly what this pack needs. A strong leader with a strong team around him for support. He is smart, brave, courageous, and everything in between. He has travel afar, fought against the biggest and baddest, and even helped save the world. He's the real deal."

"How in the world did a measly small Stoutland beat a beast of an Arcanine by himself? I'm calling Tauros shit." said an older female voice in the crowd, causing more shouts of protests and unrest, all wanting the same answer.

"The Stoutland on stage with us is just for precaution, he is not the successor. The real successor and new Pack Leader is named James Guilbeaux." As she spoke his name Arthur teleported the group to the stage to save them the potentially dangerous walk over, considering that they already didn't like the idea of a Stoutland beating a hefty Arcanine, at least he was a Pokémon, there was a much less chance for them to accept James as leader than if it was LeRoy.

"He is a human." Dawn finished her announcement.

Stunned and scared silence, shock, and surprise was shown on every subject in the Square. No one could have expected this. Even some of the psychic types that are known to have the ability to predict the future took some steps back at this revelation. Despite the clear mix feelings about the death of Ven from earlier, it was very easy to tell the clear influence Ven had on the whole pack, even the ones that didn't like him too much.

James looked around at all the Pokémon, once again marveling at the sheer number of them. Some scared, some weary, others he could see were quite curious and some even coming out of their initial surprised state and looked as if they were willing to listen. But he knew he would have to make a good first impression to even gain what little respect he could, and just like his own government, his first few weeks or so would be his most crucial, should he even last that long.

"As per ritual" Dusk continues for Dawn "the new leader will give his inauguration speech and then make his rounds around the den to visit the important places so that he may better understand the packs current system and make it easier to create new laws or change previous decrees based on what he sees within the time of today and the next sunset. During his speech you will give him your undivided attention. You will show him as much respect as you would want shown to you. If all else DO NOT ATTACK HIM, for many leaders it would be treason, I do not know what would be the punishment under our new leader but do not take that chance. The team you see behind are strong. Strong enough to take on anyone in the pack without breaking a sweat, and they are 100% loyal to James." She narrowed her eyes towards the pack "I suggest nobody tries to press their luck."

Dusk and Dawn took a couple steps back to give James his room. "The floor is yours Sir."

"Thank you, Dawn, Dusk." James took a nervous step forward. He took a deep breath and let it out, collecting his thoughts.

A heavy sigh is taken. "I want you all to first understand that this isn't something that I planned on happening. I lived a normal life, with my Pokémon family, out in the woods, away from civilization, for peace and quiet. However, during a run as of dawn today, I was attacked by an Arcanine, who wanted to take my life from me. So like any other sane being would do, I defended myself, and came out on top, at the cost of now being the pack leader to a bunch of Pokémon I have never met before, in a completely new environment, away from my own home. So believe me when I tell you this was just as much not my plan as it was not any of yours. But for the things I've seen and done around the world this doesn't even come close to the outright bazaar moments of my life. I haven't experienced anything like this before but that doesn't mean I won't give you my best efforts to keep this pack thriving and prospering."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see a fire type move charging in the distance. He wasn't worried about the attack, he was worried about how the pack would react to how he would have to respond to it before it hit.

"Lily take the hit and bring the attacker here." James suddenly said to the confusion of the majority of the pack and the surprise of the rest.

Lily caught a glint in her eye, seeing exactly who he was talking about. Faster than the blink of an eye, she appeared in front of the Pokémon who was charging his attack only have her hand out at the very moment the move was fired, which was revealed to be a Fire Blast in the split second that it was out, and let it hit, causing a mini explosion and charring the ground underneath them. Then in another split second the Pokémon was grabbed by the neck and, in another blink of the eye, appeared on stage in Lily's grasp and revealed to be a Houndoom.

James stared at the Houndoom's expression. Scared. Regretful. Losing his breath slightly but not enough to kill him, just how he trained Lily. His facial expression now reflected on some of the pack, something James was afraid of. If he's gonna be a leader, he's going earn the respect and trust of the pack, not scare it out of them as a dictator.

"I know many of you have a distrust of humans, and I can tell you that many of your assumptions of them are true for the majority of humans. A lot of humans would capture you against your will and use you to fight in battles you never wanted to be in. A lot of humans would use you as tools for their own gain, without thanking for your service, without your permission, without your feelings or thoughts brought into consideration, without your consent. A lot of humans would treat you unfairly, physically, mentally, and/or emotionally, then release you into an unknown area to fend for yourself just all of a sudden. I have members on my team who have been through this, so I know some of you have too. All I can do is give you my word that out of all the type of people I have just described, none of them are me. So there is no reason to attack me or be afraid of me. What you see up here is what I can train you all to be if you so choose. The Houndoom is fine. He is in a grasp that makes it hard for him to breathe but he isn't losing any air at all. The reason I chose Lily is show you the strength of my team. She, by far, is not the strongest in the group, though I will not tell you the ranking of the team. She was not one of my first team members. But she, a Lucario, took a fully charged Fire Blast, from a Fire-type, at close range, without even a burn mark on her."

As proof Lily brought her paw opposite paw up, the one she used to take the hit, and showed that it was still clean.

James turned towards the Houndoom still in the Lucario's grasp. "I'm a nice guy, and I intend to do my best for the pack without having the pack in constant fear of me based on actions and hard decisions I'm forced to take. I know what you're worried about, but unlike Ven, I believe everyone has the right to live if it can be helped. Can I trust that you won't try something like that again?" The Houndoom nodded as best he could. James nodded towards Lily and she released her hold on the Houndoom's neck letting him drop to the ground. With his tail between his legs he hurried off stage and back towards where he was previously sitting.

"I will do my best for this pack but you all have to give me that chance to do it. You do not have to like me, but my goal is to earn the trust and respect of each and every one of you. At least give me that chance." His speech finally ended and he took a step back and signaled for the twins to do what they need to do next.

They stepped up. "The leader will spend the rest of the day getting a tour of the pack. Any and all issues will have to either wait until tomorrow's morning agenda or given to the elders for them to handle your issues or hold until James can get to them. You will all do your regular tasks for the day, no overtime, use today for rest if you can because tomorrow, once James starts his real first day, it will get hectic in here."

Dawn then shot an uncharged Zap Cannon into the air. Once the ball of electric energy got over the middle of the pack it exploded and dispersed outward in a small grand display. Dusk gave a call as her, Dawn, James, his team, and Nala, teleported away.

"DISMISSED!"


End file.
